A Mother's Love
by NeirahIgarashi
Summary: My side of an untold story... WARNING: Involves Oedipus Complex theory concepts
1. Chapter 1

*He watched the blade pierce her chest, his eyes wide in fear as her blood stained her elegant rose colored kimono. Her beautiful, satiny raven hair caught the fire's light as it fluttered around the smooth curves of her face like it was chasing the life from her discolouring flesh; her once sun kissed skin fading to a porcelain ivory with the rapid escape of circulation as a result of her blood loss. Her darkly painted lashes danced to the beat of her heart over her crystal gaze as the shock wore off into an uncanny awareness of her fate. "Mother no!" The young boy's cries echoed even as the structure of his once prosperous home crumbled around him. He whimpered shrilly and whirled on his heels in the same spot to watch with a soft gasp as another building's hundred-year-old foundation crumbled beneath the intensity of the flames engulfing their village; his home. He reached out to her in his disorientation as her elegantly groomed fingers reached out to him in return and she started to collapse as a result of her weakness; her eyes widening in terror.

"Hiten... my son... you must-" She choked out a gentle cry of pain as a final desperate, strangled breath escaped her lungs and she landed in front of him motionless as her blood soaked the ash covered floorboards around him. He flinched away from where her fancy dagger had slipped out of her grasp, rattling across the floor towards him. He shook in fear, his breathing trembling as it escaped him, while he watched a dark figure appear behind his mother's collapsed body; shadowed in flame. He cut his desperately furious crimson gaze sharply to where his father lingered in the darkened doorway, his figure subtly illuminated every now and again by the flicker of the castles flames.

"Why?!" He demanded in a harsh escalated tone, tears streaming steadily down his face. He barred his teeth in anger, bitter confusion raging inside him as he clenched his furious young fists in rage. "Why did you attack mother?!" His words were broken and choked with emotions that he tried to conceal; his blood burning hotter than the flames of hell that night as a power like he had never known ragged through him. He would never forget his father's laughter; unfeeling, dark and sinister as it reverberated through his mind. It would resonate in his ears until the day he ceased to exist.

"Don't be afraid, Hiten; I didn't raise you to succumb to such a fickle emotion." Ryura cut his own darkening crimson gaze from his wife's corpse to his son's trembling fists. "I could never kill you... I have high expectations of my only demon son." Hiten flinched with the reality of his father's words; could there be another? A brother or sister sharing his blood? He dismissed the assumption and shook his head with a furious cry before searching frantically for a way to protect his wounded mother. Flames encircled him as he struggled to find the courage to stand up to the man who was once his father; the monster now standing before him. He debated taking up his mother's dagger a moment but quickly decided against it with the assumption that such a small, elegant weapon wouldn't serve his purpose. His tired eyes blinked back his tears as they came to rest on Raigekijin, a weapon that once belong to his father. He quickly snatched it up and with trembling hands stepped in between Ryura and his suffering mother.

"No! Stop! I won't let you hurt her anymore!" He shook his head and stood bravely at his father's feet; tears still stinging his eyes as his father's figure turned away like his threat meant nothing. "Huh? No! Come back here and answer for what you've done!" He shouted angrily, although uncertain as to whether his demand was rational. His awkward grip on his elongated weapon tightened furiously as he took a determined step forwards. Honor, strength and passion, his father didn't practice what he had preached during his youngest years; he didn't follow his own rules. He felt the cold hand of betrayal around his throat and it was suffocating him in a sea of agony. His father turned and looked back at him without even the least bit of concern on his features.

"Don't waste your strength on a woman, Hiten. You can be so much more." Hiten's eyes stung and he coughed with the inhalation of smoke burning the inside of his lungs as he inhaled sharply to steady his trembling breaths. "You take care of that weapon, son. I'll be back for it..." He watched as his father turned with his dark warning and disappeared behind the flames. For a moment he stood frozen in time staring into the fire's bright light against the black of the cold night around them. After a long moment with tears streaming steadily down his cheeks, leaving clean streaks over his soot covered skin; he let out a furious cry to the dead air around him. He dropped the pike to his feet and ran to his mother's side, taking her hands in his. With all that remained of his strength, he dragged his mother through the crumbling gates of their home. When she had successfully been delivered from the flames he raised his hand to his eyes with a hoarse cough. His wandering gaze caught the light of golden flames reflecting off of Raigekijin's blade edge and he ground his teeth in determination despite watching the doorway collapsing before him. He lunged forwards and skidded beneath the crumpling debris, his palm resting on the heating, combustible surface of the weapon. He whimpered slightly with the searing of his flesh around the shaft of the pike but despite the burn he refused to let it go. He dragged the weapon behind him, the blade biting into the hardwood in the entrance as he fled the building.

After watching the flames consume his home for a moment longer, his gaze shifted to where his mother laid. He ignored her distant stare as it pierced his flesh into a world unseen; her tan flesh paling as her life watered the soil and stained the earth inescapably. He dropped his newly inherited weapon to the earth and slumped to his knees at her side, reaching out to take her hand in his. He could feel her blood cooling while it ran over his hand and down his wrist as his hands wrapped tight around hers. Tears rolled over his cheeks hot with fury, hate and devastation. His grip was fierce, but hers had become cold and lifeless beneath his.

His voice trembled bitterly as he spoke, his eyes sealed tight as he grimaced in pain with his effort to force his tears back. "Mo-ho-ther..." He managed haggardly, drowning is his suffering. "I will... avenge you..." He shuddered and let out a desperate cry. "Father will die by my hand!" He cried into the night, refusing to let his gaze meet his mother's crystal blue, sightless expression again as it iced over eternally. The screams echoed in his ears as the flames danced behind his tear drowned eyes. Every lick of every flame burnt into his soul that night as he filled himself with hate and the silent oath of vengeance. The hollows of his mind echoed with the senses of a memory so tormented that it threatened to consume him entirely; blackening his soul with the loneliness of a life broken by hate and fear. It consumed him; became him... until nothing felt closer to the chiseled stone that had become his heart than his bloody hand wrapped tight around the weapon that he'd sworn he'd claim his father's life with.*

Hiten gasped as if he'd surfaced from beneath a dark pool of his own blood, suffocating breathlessly as he lurched forwards in his bed to a sudden crack of thunder. He panted in one spot for a long moment, his sharp crimson gaze darting around the darkened room as the lightning in the valley illuminated the weathered cracks in the once great halls of his home. He quickly raised his palm to his dampened brow before slowly raking his fingers through his sweat-soaked bangs. 'A dream...' His bare chest trembled with his heavy breath as the ragged blanket fell down to meet where his navy pants were riding low around his hips. He swallowed hard and dryly, blinking back his disorientation. "Mother..." He whispered huskily. It had been almost forty years since the day she'd fallen before him, lifeless and cold; but she had never once left his thoughts. His hand fallowed through around the back of his head to where he tangled his fingers in his hair at the back of his neck. He closed his eyes, growling lowly, and grinding his teeth as the burn bit into the nape of his neck with the pressure of his grip.

He slowly opened his eyes with a heavy sigh, observing the light illuminating the cracks that scarred the walls once again. The draft was humid, stagnant; reeking of ash and sulfur as it penetrated the devastated frame of the castle. He slunk out from beneath the covers that had been pinned on either side of him by the two women that currently shared his company. He snorted lowly as the woman to his right moaned softly and snatched the covers gently back to cover her naked breasts. He leaned forwards and rested his palm on the cool floor; bracing himself as he rose unsteadily from the rags he used as blankets, damp with mildew and perspiration. He gathered his thick raven hair between his hands and drew it back out of his face. He carefully laced a series of gathered strands at his nape before dragging his hair over his shoulder to ease the strain on his arms as he followed through with the completion of his braid. He blinked back the images of his mother's icy, lifeless stare; growing cold before his youthful eyes as he struggled to save her. He turned his head to the side as he tied off his hair and started for one of the only remaining, functional doors in the castle. He could hear Manten down the hall snoring grotesquely as he slumbered; perhaps he would gift the wenches to his younger brother later that morning.

He slid the door over its track silently and stepped through the doorway, gently closing it behind him to contain the exhausted concubines. He kept his bare footsteps silent as he padded across the soot stained floorboards leading towards the fire-scarred entrance of his castle. He squatted in the entrance way and brushed his fingertips over the divots in the floor remaining after four decades of wear. Images of the past flashed through his mind once more of a younger version of himself dragging his pike through the flaming doorway; his neighbors screams echoing in his ears. He straightened slowly and moved through the dank, empty halls that had used to be filled with rich, golden light. He crossed into a room at the end of the hall, dimly lit by candles as they burned out slowly beneath the rack that his Raigekijin was mounted on. For a long, cold moment he just watched the flames flicker weakly in the blade's reflection; more painful recollections surfacing in his tormented mind. He reached out and gripped the shaft of the pike, raising it from its shrine to admire it a moment in reminiscence. Such a weapon was made for one task; revenge.

He had wandered for days, exhausted; carrying the weight of his mother's death heavy on his shoulders. He dragged the pike that he had claimed in the fire along with him, five feet too long for him to properly hold, as he searched for some way to drown out the pain. Along the way he had met with another demon of his own kind, the half thunder demon Manten; whose family took him in. When Manten was born, Hiten and his mother had been in the village nearby. He could remember Manten's mother coming to them and begging for the honor of his mother to name their first child. He could still feel the weight of his mother's hands on his shoulders as she smiled warmly and agreed. She had offered Manten his name in honor of her only son; Hiten. The reptilian mother of the half-blooded child was delighted but Hiten could never bring himself to understand why. At the time, he was just a boy; acting as such, clinging desperately to his parents for guidance. He could remember his mother's kind words that day; and as he collapsed in the ashy sand of the valley he once called home, she was all he could think about.

After Manten had found him unconscious in the distance, he returned him to the small mountainous reprieve that the remainder of the tragedy's survivors claimed as their refuge. Growing up a part of a new family, Hiten and Manten had grown close; thinking of one another as blood brothers. But when Hiten had grown older, the rage inside his heart grew as well. To fill the void, he had begun to increase his strength and constantly challenged humans and demons alike in battles to the death. Sometimes he spoke invitations and other times, he ruthlessly slaughtered without warning. He had killed countless on his own and each time his hate only seemed to grow stronger. He became distant and eventually started to separate himself from the other's that remained of his kind. Fellow survivors of the fires that night had come to fear him like they had his father, claiming that the blood of the prince was tainted with the same evil that corrupted his father. Finally, he came to hate the shadow in which his people rotted beneath; refusing to come to terms with the reality that he was becoming that which he had hated the most. He abandoned them in the wastes to return to the castle he used to call home, the only one loyal enough to trail him being his adopted brother Manten. He vowed one day to take the life of his wretched father with his own weapon, that had become unstoppable in his hands; it was a fantasy that had gone unfulfilled.

*"Brother Hiten!" Manten burst through the door in alarm, immediately coming to regret his bold actions. Hiten's crimson gaze shifted sharply towards his brother from where it had been observing the woman giggling in his lap through his heavy sedation. He raised an eyebrow curiously as his brother's pale, amphibian features flushed with the heat of his embarrassment.

"What is it Manten?" He drawled lowly, the hoarse rasp in his voice warning his brother that his interruption had better be relevant. "What has you so worked up?" Manten was panting in his midst, his fingers intertwining sheepishly as his gaze wandered the charcoal colored walls of the palace his brother had grown up in.

"News from the South, dear brother; it's about your father..." Hiten's gaze flashed as he stood slowly, releasing his hold on the woman previously in his lap to toss her to the side negligently.

"What about him...?" Hiten hissed furiously in demand, his sated demeanor obviously wearing away. Manten took a step backwards at the sight of Hiten's darkening features. He feared his brother most when he demonstrated such fury, the same fear that had plagued the remainder of their kind into extinction.

"He... he has been slain, brother..." Manten managed weakly, ending his eternal debate as to how he would break the news to the short tempered pure blood. Manten turned to the side and put his hands over his head in reflex, all too aware of the repercussions of such news. 'Here it comes...' Hiten's eyes widened, his teeth ground hard as he processed Manten's words. He took a hold of his brother's collar and dragged him forwards; all but crashing nose to nose with the younger man.

"What... did you just say...!?" Hiten sneered furiously through his teeth. "Who!? Who killed him!?" He demanded bitterly, his blood running cold. "Answer me!" Manten shook in his wake and the woman he'd kept cowered in fear in the corner of the room.

"I... I'm sorry, Hiten; that's all I heard..." He squeaked sorrowfully. Hiten tossed him to the ground and he hastily scampered out of the room in retreat. Hiten's fist shook as he clenched it tight around itself and he turned slowly to face the woman in the corner. She whimpered in fear, devastated with the unexpected turn in Hiten's demeanor.

"You have... eight seconds to leave this place..." Hiten warned her sternly. Fear kept the woman frozen in place rather than retreating as she should have. She shook her head softly in denial of his outrage and Hiten cut his gaze away from hers certainly. "So be it..." Manten cringed just outside the doorway as a blinding light escaped the room followed almost immediately by the furious snap of thunder. He quickly covered his ears to endure the deafening crack, a tolerance that he hadn't inherited from his father's blood. He was shaking as he peered back into the room, surprised that the previously dried and charred walls hadn't caught on fire all over again. The woman had been incinerated to nothing but a crumbling, ashy skeleton at Hiten's feet as he stood in the middle of the room; his hands now shaking around his Raigekijin.

'It can't... be...' He barred his teeth and let his rage build inside him as he stared distantly into the valley that had once been hidden from his view behind the walls of the room. He closed his eyes and with a sharp turn of his wrist, he worked his thunder pike through his fingers; wrapping it around his body skillfully. Manten watched in horror as his brother closed his eyes and flashed his fangs from where they had been concealed by his devastated scowl. Hiten had grown devastatingly powerful and although he once cared for the boy, he only remained in his presence out of fear for what his older brother would see as a betrayal. Hiten suddenly opened his eyes and lightning struck the ground nearby, illuminating his dark, furious expression of unrestrained fury. Manten scurried away as the walls crashed down before him revealing, in the center of the room, Hiten; standing among the rubble, shaking in anger and panting heavily as the dust settled. He turned and looked up into the darkened sky, cursing the damned soul that had fallen before it had been properly conquered by his own hand. "Father…"*

His breath caught with the sound of movement down the hall and he released his hold on his weapon; allowing it to crash down to the floor. He gritted his teeth, furrowing his brows dismally as he whirled around to face the source of the intrusion. As he did so, his world shook irrationally and his thoughts escaped him through his, no doubt, gaping jaw. He shifted his gaze only briefly to his own retracting fingertips as they curled in on his adult palm, quickly returning it to the apparition plaguing his half-conscious mind. "I-it… It can't… be…" A hesitant chill skittered along his spine and he remained rooted in place, unsure of whether to take a step forward in longing or a step back in indecisive horror. He saw her fall, watched her bleed; forced other's imminent deaths closer than anticipated just to block out the intolerable memories of her suffering. He parted his lips to speak but had to let his thoughts gather a moment before any words emitted coherently. "M-mother…?" Did his breathless whisper have to sound so desperate? He examined the woman suspiciously as she slowly approached down the hall, his mother's beautiful, gentle smile displayed shamelessly on her lips. He blinked repeatedly and tried to assure himself that he was tangible, and adult. In his dreams, his youthful appearance suffered her death repeatedly as the night claimed his thoughts; but he wasn't asleep this time, nor was he young.

This time, she approached him in one of her elegantly floral kimonos as lively as any day leading up to her fall. Her crystal gaze was soft and full of warmth as she revealed the youthful dimples on her cheeks. He wasn't sure how she had come upon him so quickly but she stood so close to him that he could feel the heat of her skin as her hand reached for his. "Y-you... but I watched you fa-" An icy chill stole his spine as she reached out and laid one of her perfectly maintained fingers over his lips in silence.

"Shh..." She hushed him softly. "Be still... my son." He swallowed hard, his throat working dryly as he shifted his uncertain gaze to her own. Her voice was just as soft and gentle as the day that she had last spoken to him; the night that she had tried to warn him away from his father's wrath. Had she always been such a dainty woman? He caught his breath as if he had been released from her spell the moment her finger slipped down over his lips; her gaze following her fingertips as they slid down his body and over his bare chest. "My..." She whispered breathlessly, stepping closer before him as she rested her warm palm over his heart. "Look how you've grown..." His tongue worked behind his teeth as he glanced down at her, watching her cool gaze roaming the development she had missed in the years proceeding her death. He tipped his head back, his lashes falling heavy over his confused gaze as she slipped her dainty fingers into his hand. "You have your father's strength and your mother's beauty..." He narrowly revealed his eyes and stared into the dusty, bare ceiling rafters as her soft breath met his jaw. "But what else have you inherited... from your father?" His gaze widened slightly and his brows furrowed uncertainly as she whispered her words warmly against his neck.

His first instinct was to deny that he had become anything like his father but the reality had struck him hard almost immediately upon her words escaping. "Hold your mother, Hiten..." She whispered, laying her head on his chest. He let his gaze drop once more, observing her as she moved gently back and forth against him with the rise and fall of his heavy breaths. "What ever is the matter...?" She asked quietly behind a gentle whimper. "Haven't you missed your mother?" He cut his gaze to either side of her as he began to embrace her almost instinctively. He ran his fingers through her satin strands of hair, gently pressing her face into his chest with the force of his longing.

"Of course I have..." He managed softly. "More than you could ever know..." His breathing hitched and his uncertain crimson gaze widened. How could he have let such a guilty confession escape him? It was the confession of the young boy who admired his mother all too intimately. "No... That isn't what I meant..." He defended sheepishly, his lips brushing against her hair as he spoke. "I-"

"Of course that is what you meant..." She whispered softly against his bare skin in encouragement. She leaned up on her toes and gently pressed her lips against his with a soft moan to silence his rebuttal. Upon pulling away from him, she slowly moved around his side, trailing her finger nails gently over his abdomen as she circled him. "You have your father's dark heart..." She whispered close to his ear.

"No..." He denied softly, feeling increasingly more in control of his body. "No, you're wrong." He demanded sternly. He turned his head to the side and shifted a peripheral glance towards where she had circled behind him. He hissed softly as her soft fingers slowly curled around his throat and gently tilted his chin back.

"Mother is never wrong..." She whispered softly against his ear with a wry smile, clicking her tongue in denial. "You know better than to talk back..." He forced out a couple of hard breaths and groaned softly as her hand slipped over his throat and down his chest. "You are... your father's son..." She hissed sinisterly against his nape. His eyes widened and his heavy breath hitched in his throat in realisation. "I will have... my revenge."

Hiten snapped back to reality with the bite of cold steel pressed against his throat. "Revenge...?" He gasped and swallowed hard as the steel sank deeper into his throat; his gaze growing sharp and coherent once more. A cruel trick of his mind had rendered him vulnerable to one of his guest's assaults.

"That's right... revenge for my little sister." The now truthfully revealed woman sneered bitterly. "You may remember her as the sweet, devoted young brunette you slaughtered last week in her own bed!" Hiten blinked back his confusion and let a low growl escape him. How could he have been so foolish? "Who knew it would be so easy to incapacitate you... The notorious... last pure-blooded thunder demon..." She mocked lightly, pressing her soft, bare skin against his back. "Do you have any last words?" She hissed furiously. She flinched uncertainly as a low, rumbling chuckle shook his body against her. She shook her head lightly and regained her composure. "What's so funny!?" She demanded arrogantly. Hiten raised his gaze and stared into the dark, dismal halls of his castle.

"Your sister's screams were deafening as she fought me..." He rumbled hoarsely, remaining unusually complacent. "She sounded so delightfully helpless as she begged me to stop... Her blood sweet on my lips..." She growled in defiance and pressed her blade against him until his blood rolled over his throat.

"How dare you disrespect my sister!" She snarled through bared teeth, tears leaking from her tired eyes. "I'll carve out your heart for what you've done!" She cried out in sudden terror as his sharp reflexes folded his hand around her own until she thought it break between his palm and the hilt of her blade.

"Mmn... You'd have to do an awful lot of digging to find it, pet..." He mused smoothly, slowly turning in her trembling grip as he drew her captured hand above her head. He stepped into her sniveling figure and pressed his lips to her ear. "Yours... on the other hand..." He drew back his free hand and slipped his own dagger from his belt, drawing it forwards and thrusting it up beneath the woman's breast. Her eyes grew wide as her helpless gaze fell on his own. "You wear it so vulnerably obvious with your weakness..." She moved to whimper in response, clearly unable to accept that her mission had gone unfulfilled as she reached up and touched his face. "Shh..." He hushed softly, placing a gentle kiss on her neck. "Be still..." His crimson gaze flashed skeptically as his mother's simultaneous whispers met his senses. He shifted his gaze over his shoulder and groaned softly with his paranoia, turning to embrace the young woman that was gripping his shirt with the last of her strength. "If you're going to kill someone, do it silently. Never gift them last words..." He swiftly removed his dagger from her chest, listening to the hollow ring of her weapon falling from her weakening grip and to the floor. "I was going to leave your fate to my younger brother, but you die so beautifully in my arms..." He laid her on the ground, his hand supporting her discolouring face as she grew distant. "Say hello to your sister for me..."

With a heavy sigh, he shifted his gaze to the dagger that had fallen from his mother's hand the night she tried to ward off his demented father. The beautiful, ornate golden handle caught what little light leaked through the cracks in the walls. He had reclaimed it the night he had returned to the castle, happy to see that it had survived the lick of the flames. He recoiled when he heard the devastated cries of his second bed mate as she rounded the corner to see the lifeless corpse of her dead friend. His gaze darkened impatiently as he reached out and grabbed a hold of the girl's arm before she could escape down the hall. He dragged her back against his chest and let his dagger slide over her throat, coated in her friend's fresh blood. "Do you share her ambitions?" He hissed lowly against her neck. She cried out in denial, assuring him that she had no idea her friend was up to such treachery. He snorted in amusement as she groveled against him and wrapped his hand around her wrist tightly. She tried to pry him off of her arm as he dragged her through the empty castle halls. He pulled up to a halt in front of his brother's room and threw the door open; startling his still freshly groggy brother. "Here." He offered harshly, forcing the girl forwards into the room. She toppled over her own feet and fell to the floor before Manten as he stood in surprise.

"Brother Hiten?" He squeaked in confusion, ignoring the woman's startled screams at the sight of the half-demon.

"A gift." He stated bluntly. "Do with her as you see fit. Let me know if she disobeys and her fate will be similar to that of her little friend." He slammed the door shut with a bitter curse and listened to the woman screaming in denial trapped in his brother's room. He returned to the woman's slain friend, kneeling to pick up the weapon that he had dropped the moment his mother's ghost visited him. He ignored the girl's cold, distant stare as it resurfaced images of his mother's final empty gaze. He remounted his Raigekijin and admired it a moment before his heart finally sank with his thoughts. Only in his dreams could she be by his side, but he only saw her in his nightmares where she was far from how he needed her to be...


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Hiten shifted his gaze sharply from beneath his lashes to where his bedroom door rattled irritatingly against the wear in the track upon his brother's entry. "Brother Hiten…" Manten offered curiously as he stepped partially through the door. "You are still awake?" Hiten huffed out an impatient sigh and set his drink down on the floor while he continued to lie casually on his side.

"Well if I hadn't of been, I certainly would be now." He rumbled lowly, a dark displeased rasp in his tired voice; his tone hoarse from his drink. "To what do I owe this intrusion?" Manten cringed in reflex with the harsh underlying tone used to finish his brother's sentences.

"I… Well, you see… I was merely checking up on you; is all…" Manten started sheepishly, clamouring about to find some means of fidgeting self-consciously. "You seemed distraught this morning when you bestowed the demon wench upon me." He cut his bulbous gaze towards his brother from beneath his brows. "I had yet to see you since…" Hiten snorted in amusement and closed his eyes, snapping his head to the side in disgust.

"So the girl is dead?" Hiten ascertained harshly, raising his eye lids to stare distantly towards the haggard walls of his room.

"Aye brother… The woman did not but scream and curse me as a grotesquely displayed monster from the depths of hell." Manten sighed in disappointment, far from suffering the bewilderment of surprise. "I ended her before I could find a more practical use for the creature…" Hiten snorted softly and closed his eyes once more.

"I figured as much…" He captured his drink in his hand and emptied his glass with a hard swallow. "I will spend the night alone then. There is no sport in hunting for a suitable pet so late at night." He finished evenly. Women of all types would be sleeping at the hour guiding the moon and he was feeling less than ambitious in his current state. Manten adjusted and furrowed his brows in concern for his friend as he advanced a little closer.

"Something troubles you then…?" He started softly. "You very rarely sleep alone, brother…" Hiten cut his gaze back to Manten lingering in his doorway before snatching up the jug of alcohol kept closely by his side.

"My whereabouts and sufferings are none of your business…" He forced out hoarsely in concealment. "Now leave me with my drink." Manten sighed in defeat as Hiten turned away like his company no longer remained in his doorway.

"I-apologies… dear brother…" He started softly, bowing his head as he slowly backed through the doorway. "It was wrong of me to concern myself…" Hiten watched silently as Manten very gradually slid the door back over its track. He sighed in exasperation and shifted his attention to the dwindling flame of his candle as it flickered weakly among the drafts piercing the porous walls.

'He was foolish to dismay…' He thought roughly to himself, closing his eyes once more as he filled his glass and drew it to his lips. He was certain that he couldn't entertain company that evening, no matter how intimate; his thoughts and dreams had been plaguing him the few nights past that he had let himself indulge. He sat up and swayed slightly from side to side with his intoxication, his senses unusually distant. He wasn't color blind, but his vision was not sensitive to what bright colors may have existed in the world around him. Even with pupils fully dilated his were narrow to prevent sensitivity to the flashes of light that was his element; affecting the way that his world was viewed. Even so, he was entranced by the crystal blue that was his mother's eyes and even if the color he perceived was false in the eyes of another, he didn't want to envision it any other way. His audible range was equally as affected by his blood, reflexive to the concussive sound of thunder as it roared around him. For this reason his hearing was sensitive to frequency and not volume; could that have been why her voice was so soothing to that sense as well? His greatest sense as a pure-blooded thunder demon was touch, the response of another's skin against his as the static charge of another's flesh reacted with his own. As an adult he had discovered such a pleasure early and exploited his uniqueness to warm his bed at night; manipulating the fickle hearts of many to suit his purpose. With such an overwhelmingly powerful indulgence, he had come to determine that the only sense he needed to experience to determine his attraction to another was touch. So how had he come to develop such an attraction to the only woman he had never had a chance to hold?

No, he had held her; had been held. In his youth he had needed his mother's comforting embraces to keep him strong when he felt his weakest. *_Hiten whimpered softly and raised his dirty, bloodied arm sleeve to his face to wipe away his tears. He shook his head bitterly and swatted at the tall grass around him as it tickled the sides of his young face. "No! Get away from me!" He snapped furiously, striking the grass repeatedly while it retaliated by recoiling back in his direction as a result of his assault. He shook more angry tears from his face and continued to drag his kill through the grasslands bordering the village near the castle; the grounds where he and his father had hunted. His senses awakened over his tears as he gasped softly, shaking his disorientation away with the sound of the grass swishing in response to nearby footsteps. He quickly prepared himself with what little notice he was given by his insensitive senses and took up his small knife in his hand. _

_He quickly turned with the feeling of the grass shifting against him and was more than delighted to be met by his mother's kind, warm smile. "Hiten, my son… There you are." She mused softly, kneeling before him within the trail of flattened grass indicating the path he had taken. She reached out and slipped her fingers into his bangs, stroking them back out of his face. "What on earth are you doing so far from the castle without your father?" She inquired gently, carefully observing his figure for any sign of injury. He turned his saddened gaze away from her with a soft scoff, pouting subtly as he attempted to restrain his tears. _

_"__I came alone…" He retorted bluntly. "Father is displeased with me…" His mother's brows furrowed in kind concern as she reached out and cupped his face in her hand, tilting his gaze back to hers. _

_ "__Displeased?" She encouraged softly. "How so?" Hiten dropped the heap of decaying carcass that he was dragging behind him and lowered his gaze from hers sheepishly. _

_ "__Father told me that I was weak… That there are half-blooded demons stronger than I am…" He sniffed again, his dirty cheeks rising to try and force back the tears welling in his crimson eyes. He shifted and directed his mother's attention to his kill as the flies gathered around it's corpse in the humid field. "It took me much longer without father… but I killed it on my own…" He shifted his youthful gaze back to his mother's hopefully. "Do you think it will please him?" Tears leaked over his cheeks in dismay that his first kill had gone unnoticed by his father's ever watchful eye. "Will he be proud…?" Hiten sniffed softly as his mother gently wrapped her arms around him and drew him to her breast in a warm, comforting embrace. _

_ "__Very proud, my son…" She whispered gently against the top of his head, brushing his bangs back away from his sweat dampened brow. He peeked up from where she held him close to her chest, shimmering golden light catching her hair and appearing as silver highlights beneath the morning sun. _

_ "__Really…?" He whispered softly, inhaling his dismay as she backed away from her hold on him to offer him a gentle smile. _

_ "__Of course..." She assured him proudly. "I know I am."_* Hiten jolted awake with a soft gasp; his gaze immediately falling on the candle that had barely remained lit after, what he presumed, was multiple hours of burn time behind his closed eyelids. He shifted his gaze to the ceiling from where he laid on his back, his gaping shirt falling open with the encouragement of gravity guiding the material over his sides. He raked his fingers through his bangs with a low curse as he pushed the now emptied jug of wine from where it was braced against him. "Shit..." He rumbled lowly to himself. He adjusted slightly to one side to avoid the spilled alcohol and slowly sat up. He inhaled deeply, letting his chest fully expand before he let out a haggard cough with his exhaustion and intake of stale, dusty air. He lifted the jug upright and observed the puddle of liquid at his side. "Fuck… I should do this more often…" He mumbled unimpressed. "I've become a bit of a light weight…" He then allowed his gaze to darken while he shoved the jug back over defiantly and watched as it clamoured across the dirty floorboards. "That was only the second b-" He sucked back a harsh inhale and swung around with the eerie chill of presence teasing his nape. Part of having dull, insensitive senses helped to brew paranoia but when the final barrier of touch was broken there was no mistake that the sense was true; and triggered by the most certain of presences.

"Manten?!" He accused harshly to the dead air stagnating around him. He watched the shadows of the candles dying presence as they painted the walls black and gold around him. A low growl rose in his chest as he ground his teeth and narrowed his sharpening crimson gaze. "I am in no mood for games…" He warned darkly despite the fickly uncertain presence surrounding him. He swallowed dryly and flexed his fingers in towards his palms, regaining the circulation that had escaped him with the way he had fallen asleep. He tensed his grip as he cut his gaze back around the room uncertainly, lean strands of electricity crawling up his wrist and between his rough fingertips. "I won't offer a second warning…" His narrowed gaze widened in the dimming light as the track of his door rattled softly behind him and he impulsively threw his head to the side in an attempt to catch the intruding spectre. His breathing came swiftly and weighted as he panted uncertainly on the spot, his body trembling with the force of his confusion. Alcohol very rarely effected him at all much less so violently. He closed his eyes with the eerie moan piercing the castle walls and he craned his head to one side in recoil of the high squeal arising in the room for the briefest of moments. He remained still for a long moment, trying to steady the racing beat of his heart as it thundered beneath the walls of his chest.

*_Upon pulling away from him, she slowly moved around his side, trailing her finger nails gently over his abdomen as she circled him. "You have your father's dark heart..." She whispered close to his ear._* Hiten hissed softly and winced with the impact of what he had previously believed to be his mother's accusation. "It's a _lie_…" He sneered lowly under his breath. Paranoia had destroyed his father; turned him into an inescapable monster consumed by a false sense of pride and judgement. His beautiful mother was devoted to his every whim, delightedly rearing his child as he slunk about seeking a power that was never his to take. He snarled lowly, disgusted with how primal the display of frustration sounded coming from inside him, and climbed to his feet to gain his bearing. His brows furrowed curiously as he watched the shadows on the wall morphing unnaturally with the dying flicker of the candle.

'_Black…_' He had never been a man to startle easily but he couldn't deny the chills crawling up his spine like a hoard of tiny insects as the walls began to speak. '_Black…_' They whispered again, the light and airy sonata resonating repeatedly in his ears as if it was followed by a distant echo. He hissed impatiently and whirled on his heels, his long braid taking an extended moment to circle his body with the speed in which he rotated to follow the moulding waves of shadow. He slowly tilted his head to one side and watched the rafters of his room as the flickering flame disappeared into the blackness above him, emerging moments later displaying the embodiment of a serpent. He closed his eyes a little longer than he should have and tried to steady his thoughts.

'I take it back… I'll never drink again…' He thought distantly, watching the shadows crawl along the walls as if each blackened spec was its own living, skittering organism. The serpent was taking a more distinct shape, the vision becoming more apparently unnatural as its face developed.

'_Black…_' Hiten's body tightened with the sound of the walls hissing once more and he had to restrain the powerful urge he had to shout angrily at… what; the shadows on his wall? The poison he'd consumed to make him hallucinate so? He ground his teeth hard and flexed his fist; he couldn't fight his imagination, he couldn't wound a shadow. He swallowed hard, debating whether or not putting a hole through the wall would make him feel more in control of the situation. His brows furrowed with his growing curiosity as the animal developed, what he could only describe as tangible eyes. A shadow was one thing, dull and lifeless against a flat, material surface; but as the ebony swells of what appeared to be the creatures eyes protruded, they flickered with crystal reflections. The dimming fire's shadows were what danced on the walls so how was it that the creatures empty gaze reflected the candlelight as it burnt? '_Black…_'

Hiten growled furiously and took a demanding step forwards, posturing furiously in intimidation as he cursed the serpent; desperately hoping that Manten hadn't heard such a ridiculous inquiry that would have him, next, questioning his brother's sanity. "What the fuck is black!?" The chill returned to his body even despite the humidity as the flame of the candle breathed its last illuminated breath and the room when dark round him, consuming the whereabouts of the spectre. He didn't move as he shifted his peripheral gaze around the room over the trails that the serpent had slithered along only to see them visibly through the blackened room despite his nonexistent night vision. The walls seemed to bleed, the smooth, liquid surfaces reflecting light that wasn't present. His ears started to fill with screams, but not like those of his victims; they were of his mother. His gaze filled with terror as he directed it back to where the serpent has stilled with his demand moments before the candle light had died, and although it's shadowed, scaly flesh had vanished with the loss of light, the snake's eyes remained. The beast's eyes were black among the golden flames of the candle moments before; but they had since changed color and orientation with the loss of the light. The creature shifted its attention suddenly to where Hiten panted anxiously in the middle of the room; both eyes now fixated on the man as its hot, illuminated red iris' glared back at him furiously with narrowing black pupils.

'_Your heart!_' He couldn't explain why he winced and cried out as the snake leapt off of the wall and lunged towards him. When he opened his eyes again, the room was dimly lit by the gentle flicker of the candle at his feet. He panted breathlessly, resisting his urge to kick the candle over and toss it into the hall, scouring the walls for the presence of the ghastly vision. His gaze slowly narrowed as his blind confusion boiled into rage and his body grew tight with repent. He cried out venomously and glared in no particular direction as the fire danced behind his enraged crimson gaze.

"Lies!" He cried out to the still air, feeling increasingly more foolish as his visions had him succumbing to his inner turmoil. Sparks glittered on his fingertips as he raked his tensed fingers through his bangs. "I'm not him…" He hissed lowly, hating how similar his voice sounded to that of the serpents. He shook his head with a furious, defiant growl. "What the fuck am I even doing!? Talking to the fucking walls – I'm going out of my god damned mind!" He cursed bitterly, trying to refocus his grip on reality. 'This never happens…' He thought to himself quietly, hoping that his more recent outburst hadn't woken Manten down the hall. Memories of his father's betrayal flashed behind his sealed eyelids as he lowered his face and rested his palm beneath his bangs to check himself for a developing fever. 'I'm not him…' He slowly opened his eyes, his expression much softer than before as he allowed himself a fleeting moment of vulnerability contained within the solitary walls of his own bedroom. "What's happening… to me…?" He whispered softly to himself.

"It's not easy growing up…" Hiten's eyes widened as a gentle touch was laid on his shoulder just above his heart from behind him. He drove the wrist connecting with him away and turned while simultaneously reversing with a bitter hiss. His gaze narrowed on the gentle curves hidden snuggly beneath a thinly tapered dressing gown; one all too familiar to his eyes. *_"Mother! Mother, father is gone!" A young Hiten shoved against her door with all his might, sliding it opened with a soft grunt. He inhaled sharply as he entered his mother's chambers just as she was tying her sash tightly around her lean waist. With a soft, reassuring smile, she turned to face him as he approached her. He tugged lightly on her pale coloured sash in urgency. "I can't find father anywhere…" He continued breathlessly, trying to regain his composure after his panicked dash. She gently shooed his hand away from her gown's sash and slipped his hand beneath her fingers as she knelt by his side. _

_"__There, there…" She hushed him softly, lifting him into her arms. "He won't be gone long…" She assured him quietly, softly adjusting the way her breasts pressed promiscuously against the soft material of her gown as her child's weight tugged against it. Hiten nuzzled into his mother's shoulder as he trembled against her, comforting in her scent and the gentle material of her gown against his face. Her next words were whispered gently against his head as she began to sing softly to the frightened child with words of reassurance._* He recoiled in frustration as her hand brushed against his persistently and he quickly snatched it away. "_Enough_." He demanded roughly beneath his breath, between his ground teeth. His body was tight as he reached for the dagger kept carefully on his belt, the dagger that she had left to him the night of her death.

She gently retracted her touch and adjusted her robes around her curvaceous figure. "So cold…" She whispered solemnly, her kind expression turning discouraged with his denial. "Like your father…" He flexed his white knuckled grip around the decorated hilt of his weapon, comforting in its reassuring presence.

"Be silent wench!" He hissed lowly. "I am _nothing_ like my father…" He cut his gaze only briefly around the room in suspicion before staring her down once more. "I am not so foolish to fall prey twice in one day." The sweetly decorated woman shifted her stance and advanced in his direction with a pitiful look of suffering on her features.

"Hiten… is that any way to speak to your mother...?" She offered softly, reaching out to wrap her fingers around the hand that he tightly held his dagger with. "I have never wronged you…" Hiten was moments from retracting his arm and finishing the apparition in a similar manor to the way he had ended the first one but his brother's words kept him still. *_"__So the girl is dead?" Hiten ascertained harshly, raising his eye lids to stare distantly towards the haggard walls of his room. _

_"__Aye brother… The woman did not but scream and curse me as a grotesquely displayed monster from the depths of hell." Manten sighed in disappointment, far from suffering the bewilderment of surprise. "I ended her before I could find a more practical use for the creature…"_*

His eye widened with the feeling of dampness growing on his shirt collar as she stepped into his embrace. From where her face had been concealed against his shoulder, her tears pooled warmly against his shirt and her hand trembled against his hold on her dagger. "Why now…?" He whispered softly, his grip only slightly relaxing around his blade. "I have never been plagued with such distracting thoughts of my past before…" His throat worked as he watched the shadows flickering over the walls suspiciously. "Not like this…" His body tightened once more as she raised her head from against him, her beautiful eyes sparkling with her fallen tears.

"Why does it matter?" She whispered breathlessly before him while gently stroking his fingers as they curled around her old dagger. "Why can't you just be happy to see your mother…?" She turned her head away with a gentle gasp of restraint, raising her free hand to her painted lips to conceal her sobs. "After so long." After a moment of listening to her tender whimpers he reached out with his own free hand and cupped her chin between his fingers. Her gaze immediately returned to his as he encouraged her to face him once more and his reserve faltered with the rise of his longing for her life returned. He shifted his gaze from her gentle, painful expression to where her lips parted with her breathless sobs. Without realising it he had grown closer to her; close enough to feel her trembling breath on his lips.

"Because…" His hoarse whisper barely left his lips as he watched her innocence dance beneath the candle light. The presence of her tears shimmered against her dark skin as if it had been highlighted with the dust of diamonds. He shifted his gaze away from the temptation of her perfect pout and directed it back to her glittering eyes. "Because… it's a lie…" He shifted his hand back behind her ear and slipped his fingers in her hair as he watched a gentle smile curl her lips while she delighted in his embrace. He closed his eyes the moment she rested her hand against the side of his face, debating dropping his dagger just to throw his arms back around her. Her whisper was soft and encouraging as she neared him, determined to gain his attention.

"Then lie with me…"

"Brother Hiten…? Are you al-" Manten gasped slightly as he peeked in the doorway of Hiten's room. He narrowed his gaze in concern on the man that stood in the center of the room with his dagger in one of his hands. He stood centered, with his eyes closed and shirt opened in the front with his free hand clutched somewhat near his chest. Manten slowly pushed the door opened a little more and pressed forwards into the room. "H-Hiten…?"

Hiten's eyes flew opened and his fantasies vanished with the sound of Manten's voice breaking his thoughts upon his entry to his room. His gaze shifted peripherally around the empty room as his brother began to approach and his panicked heart raced with fury. 'No…' He swallowed hard, his brows furrowing in devastation as he flexed the fingers that were, moments ago, laced in the woman's hair. 'Mother…'

Manten squeaked in denial as he narrowly avoided the flight of Hiten's weapon sailing through the air in his general direction. He slowly raised and observed the ornate shaft of the dagger's hilt as it pierced the wall in the position that his head should have remained. He shot his timid gaze immediately back to his friend who was now panting in fury, his body tight in an intimidating stance. "B-brother… I was just… c-coming to check on you…" He forced out softly, tapping his forefingers together uncertainly. "I heard distressed calls and i-"

"Never… again…" Hiten demanded venomously from where he stood across the room.

"H-Hiten?" His gentle inquiry was brutally interrupted by Hiten's rage.

"_NEVER_!" He demanded wrathfully. "Never enter this room again! I don't care if a pool of my blood has leaked onto the hallway floor on the other side! _Never open this door_!" Manten quickly scampered out the doorway, neglecting to shut the door behind him with the distraction of his alarm. Upon Manten's exit, Hiten immediately sealed his eyes and barred his fangs in the dimly lit room. He reached out with both of his hands and sunk them into loose strands of his hair in agony; wincing with the burn of his own furious grip as he cried out in frustration. He couldn't separate reality from his nightmares any longer and the sensation was threatening his very existence. His vulnerability had already been exposed that morning when he had allowed himself to be captured off-guard by a naked bed wench. He had always had his nightmares and sour memories of a tormented childhood, but his reserve had never been challenged like it had as of late. He wasn't ready for acceptance but in the same breath, he wasn't ready to fight it; or perhaps… he didn't want to fight it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

The night was dying with the break of the red sun over the horizon. Raimei valley was a relatively dismal place since his father's fall and he could only describe the unusual occurrences nearby as a result of his tension. It was rare that he caught the sight of the sun or the moon through the occasional break in the clouds before thunder made its presence known along the bare ground. He exhaled softly, curious as to how he was capable of seeing his breath; he usually slumbered past the sun's rise and was unfamiliar with the cool air that overtook the land in its young hours. The morning had been crisp, but the air around the valley was always humid and warm in temperature; this made the area a perfect festering ground for severe electrical surges. He reefed back on a dark leather strap wrapped around his wrist to bind his arm brace firmly in place, wincing with the bite of the abrasive material in his skin. He shifted his gaze out over the dusty, lifeless plains of the mountainous valley and started to hike up his second arm sleeve. He snatched the material between his teeth and tucked it tightly underneath the gear-shaped guards he mounted on his shoulders.

He shifted his gaze back over his shoulder, releasing the leather strap from between his teeth as he caught the faintest glimpse of Manten shifting around in the hallway at his back. Hiten cut his impatient, narrowing gaze away from where Manten whimpered in panic and darted into the nearest room out of sight. A long moment of silence passed as Hiten slid on orange fabric, slipping an iron ring onto his middle finger to secure it as he hiked the material up to his elbow, adjusting his second arm brace over top of it methodically. He tossed his braid back over his shoulder and shifted his gaze down to his weapon; the one he'd sworn to claim his father's life with. "A-are you going out, b-brother?" Hiten grunted softly in acknowledgement and slowly stood, working his fingers limber in preparation. He rotated his wrist before bending down to retrieve his weapon; striding away from the castle. Manten watched solemnly as Hiten rolled his weapon around his body, crossing it back between his shoulders before weighing the shaft heavily enough to return the weapon to where it rested across his chest whilst he shouldered it casually. Manten's throat worked as the next flash of distant lightning illuminated the blood gem mounted beneath the weapon's blade.

"It's rather early for a hunt, is it not?" Manten pried sheepishly, watching the crisp morning fog weighing heavily around Hiten's ankles as he advanced. "Perhaps I should accompany y-"

"I'm going alone, Manten." He rumbled lowly in conclusion. He sighed softly once more as he halted his advance to spare his roommate a glance. "I have been restless the past few nights; unlike myself. A good battle should clear my head…" It was one thing to weaken in the mind but he refused to let his body suffer from the same unintentional limitation. Thunder demons as a people were weak and vulnerable to the predatory traits of their fellow demons; equip with weak senses and a notoriously unstable mentality. Survival of their kind had always depended on their physical fitness and their ability to mould their element to their will; something Hiten had become incredibly skilled in accomplishing.

"B-Perhaps there is… another way?" Manten suggested from behind trembling lips. "Blood is-"

"That is what I need now, Manten!" Hiten called back impatiently, striding forwards once more. "If I continue east I should arrive nearby the gates of the neighbouring kingdom by daybreak…" Manten shook his head softly in concern and stepped through the gates of their home.

"Brother, surely you don't mean to raid a kingdom during the day!" He ran out into the valley clumsily to catch up to where his brother had advanced to. "It is one thing to abduct a small village's women in the twilight hours but to do so d-"

"I'm not after the village's women…" Hiten guaranteed him slowly, the dark rasp remaining in his voice as he assured his brother of his deeper intensions. "My lust is for the blood of their soldiers. The flesh of a mortal wench could never sate such a hunger." Manten shook his head in concern, his brows furrowing with the uncertainty of his brother's actions.

"Please brother, let me accompany you if not just to watch your hind side..." He reached out and laid his scaly reptilian hand on his friend's shoulder. "You will travel much faster at my side and reach the kingdom in better strength…" Hiten huffed out a hard breath as he considered Manten's proposition. The blood of Manten's father had morphed when it was inherited in part by Manten as he developed inside his mother's womb. His abilities were unlike those in which the pure-blooded thunder demons exhibited. It took Manten longer to harness the electric charge that was his attacks but once he had reigned in enough energy, they were broad and destructive. He was a very crude example of what mixed blood could be if it was tainted by another. This made him a strong, defensive companion; somebody capable of annihilating approaching forces that have slipped by unnoticed by Hiten's weaker senses.

On top of his blunt forced attacks, Manten had inherited a strange ability from his mother that aided in the way he traveled. The day Manten had found the young Hiten wandering the wastes, he had been practicing such a strange talent; and since had strengthened the ability enough to support a second or third weight. Using the wetland skills of his amphibian mother, Manten could combine the gaseous elements of steam, air and moisture along with his father's electricity to create a form of weightless transportation. To a mortal eye, it would look as though Manten was riding the clouds themselves. This also aided in battles that Hiten had found himself in; his brother's defensive position dispelling smoke screens to distract enemies. With Hiten's hypersensitive comprehension of touch and the statically charged particles around him, he could easily pass through the void and continue through on his destructive path. After a long moment of consideration, Hiten reluctantly closed his eyes and offered Manten a sharp nod in agreement. "Be swift in preparation." Hiten hissed lowly in demand, turning to watch Manten scampering away. He had been acting relatively rash and he was well aware that not all of his judgment had been unclouded. Going into battle against what could work out to be an entire kingdom was foolish and irrationally reckless; but his blood boiled instinctively with the need to do so.

He couldn't remember when he had become so uncontrollably violent. Once his father had been slain, all rational assumptions would have led one to believe that his thirst for revenge would have subsided; but that had been far from the case. The more he had battled to obtain the strength and skill he needed to defeat the man who had betrayed him in his youth, the more he began to enjoy the suffering of other's beneath his hands. Mortals were intolerable. He had heard many whispers in his village when he was still a boy, whispers of a dark taint plaguing the man who ruled; his father. It hadn't taken him long to figure out that his father was once a human and many people said that he had died in mortal flesh only to be resurrected as a demon at the cost of his soul. Hiten assumed such a theory was foolish, if anyone could be resurrected from the dead, his mother would have been by his side in more than just fantasy.

Upon his father's betrayal Hiten grew bitter to the mortal race, blaming his father's mortal taint as the reason for his slipping sanity. He knew very little of his father's life before his birth but what he did know didn't come nearly close enough to justifying his sudden break. Hiten collectively accused mortal weakness for taking his parents away from him; ultimately orphaning him in the ashes that were once the flame of his father's wrath. If he had of been more than one person he would have focused all of his ambitions on cleansing the world of mortal taint. His people bred out their blood and grew weak in the shadow of the mountains. Eventually, the last of their kind had been destroyed; slain by mortal demon hunters and predators of superior blood. He was disgusted with what they had become; fearful of the shadow that was his father… himself.

Mortals were growing increasingly bolder; constantly storming the gates of what was once his father's kingdom to declare ownership of the lands. Hiten would stand for none of it, and after countless confrontations before his front gates, the neighbouring kingdoms eventually surrendered their ambitions. Some nearby villages, lord-less and poor, actually offered up sacrifices to their might. Hiten sometimes took advantage of such a foolish assumption that gifting beautiful young women to the 'Thunder Gods' would keep their village safe. He had to say, that on his path of destruction, that village would certainly outlast the others; but more times than not, Manten would end up holding the fates of such fickle creatures. The amusement grew when he started to seek demon women; his name already well known in foreign territories. Although each was fearful and obedient, none of them managed to survive a second night in the ruins of the old castle.

"I'm ready brother!" Hiten winced out of his thoughts with Manten's intrusion, disgusted with how the creature crammed himself into similar attire to that of Hiten's pure-blooded forefathers. Manten was a half-blood, but there was nothing mortal about him; a fact that had seen his life spared on multiple similar occasions.

"Fine then… Let's be off." He demanded harshly, folding his arms over his chest as he stared out over the brightening horizon. "I have a race to illuminate…"

The air was still and peaceful around the still slumbering village outskirts, lights dimmed and curtains drawn save for the few farms waking with the sun to tend to their livestock. A wickedly sinister grin curled Hiten's lips as he leapt silently over the rear gates barricading the village's borders. His footsteps were silent and his accuracy precise as he carried his weapon behind him, careful to keep control of its long shaft so not to disturb the land around him suspiciously. The thrill of supremacy grew as he skirted the gate walls, guards lounging about unaware of his unsuspected presence. He picked up his pace and sprinted steadily towards the main gate; traveling around the barricade itself would be the quickest, least disruptive path to take to the kingdom's castle where he would find his true prize. With a soft grunt he drove the blade of his Raigekijin into the soft earth at the gateway's base, vaulting himself up against the broad wooden archway. He withdrew the pike, immediately turning on his toes as they connected half way up the wall before leaping upwards towards the top of the wall.

He just barely connected with the top trim of the wall's surface and carefully slipped back behind the nearby guard overlooking the wall from behind heavy eyelids. The man looked tired, his replacement no doubt on their way with the break of dawn over the horizon. He surveyed the area suspiciously; displeased with the lack of amusement he would obtain from such a weak challenge. The sixth sense that seemed to drive mortal ambition must have kicked in with one of the guards as they slowly turned to observe the land at their backs. "What is it…?" One guard inquired softly, the other observing the empty area that Hiten had previously occupied. Hiten inhaled sharply and flipped backwards over the ledge of the thatched roof he had perched himself on moments before the guard had turned his head. With a soft grunt of succession he landed before them with one foot on either side of their posts; his pike braced behind his back as his free hand encouraged their challenge.

"What indeed…" He rumbled sinisterly. Manten flinched as the guards shouted intrusively to declare the presence of a demon intrusion. Although Hiten had held the capability to be stealthy, the man rarely maintained such an approach. He winced as Hiten narrowly dodged arrow fire, wrapping his awkwardly lengthy weapon around his body. It made Manten nervous, watching Hiten fight with such a weapon. He was well aware that Hiten's senses weren't even as sharp as a mortal's but when it came to combat; there was nothing he didn't see. Even as the useful part of his weapon had been thrust deep into the abdominal cavities of his enemies and he was left relatively defenceless, he was always a step ahead of his opponent's actions. Manten cringed with his lack of amusement as warning calls echoed though the now waking village, he had still had a terrible feeling that Hiten was in way over his head; but despite the sense of danger, he couldn't help but wonder if that was what Hiten had wanted all along.

He enjoyed the spray of blood releasing from wounds drawn over mortal flesh by the blade of his Raigekijin. He flashed a fang in amusement and spun his weapon back around his hips to deflect an incoming attack; quickly ripping the blade back over his shoulder to end the assault at his back while he confronted an incoming attack. He exhaled sharply as he dropped against the wall floorboards, sweeping his foe's feet from beneath him. He then quickly recovered his stance to rotate his pike, sinking the blade into the now grounded man so they he could propel himself over the gagging carcase into the next oncoming offender. He dragged his blade from where it had spilled the blood of his current enemies and extended his reach by grasping the shaft near the end of the seven foot long weapon. Between the reflexes of either one of his wrists, the blade cut through the air swiftly and opened a series of fatal and non-fatal wounds that rendered the guardsmen ultimately incapacitated.

He dropped down a level with heavy breaths and knelt against the walls floor; his weapon's hand trembling anxiously around the bamboo shaft. He cut his gaze to where Manten had emerged nearby; waiting for the call he knew Hiten would soon offer. Hiten shifted his gaze to the left side of him where guards approached along the wall, but much more thinly than the ones to his right. He slowly stood rolling one of his shoulders tensely as blood rolled down his bare arm just near his brace. "Light it up, Manten…" He ordered quietly, ignoring the other men growing dangerously near along the side of the wall. "I'm done playing on even ground…" He closed his eyes and listened to the men's angry clamouring as they drew near, no doubt questioning the poor weather rolling into the kingdom's skies.

The men's distraught orders very quickly became terrified wails of agony upon Manten's discharge. Under the intense heat of the electrical surge, the wooden gates weren't long in catching ablaze; crackling as the thatching of the main gateway engulfed entirely. Hiten propped his pike up against his shoulder casually and strode through the flames licking the gate's main structural support. He opened his eyes, the reflective flames dancing in the reflection of his determined crimson stare. "Now that I've gotten your attention…"

"Your highness! We have to evacuate what villagers we can through the front gates, yourself included." The old king shifted his gaze away from the window where in the far off distance he could see tall flames kissing a sky of foreboding clouds.

"Very well; I appreciate your concern captain, but I should like to know what exactly is setting my kingdom ablaze." His brows furrowed in concern as he pondered a course of suitable action. "The last time we suffered sudden devastation of this magnitude, it was at the hands of Warlord Ryura and his company." The king took a swift step back towards his throne. "Since his demise almost a decade ago, I was almost certain that our trouble with such a troublesome infestation would be over with." The captain bowed quickly in respect and hastily continued on with his defence.

"We are under the impression… that this assault is lead by his son." The captain watched dismally as the king's tired grey eyes flashed in concern.

"My word, he is but one man?" The king shook his head in disbelief, trying to process such devastation caused by a single pair of hands.

"We can't confirm sire, but it would seem so…" The captain added bleakly. "And as suspicions would have it, his son has inherited all capabilities. We're certain he is the demon residing in the fallen fortress of Raimei Valley." The captain approached and offered the older man his arm. "Now please, you highness; I fear we have very little time." The high ruler nodded sharply and started for the front gates of his castle.

"Double your efforts in protecting every innocent life you can." He ordered in concern as they neared the doors that had been moments from opening. "We can rebuild a castle and re-sew the land… but we cannot do it on the backs of a few. Save as many as you can mana-"

"Oh I really don't think that will be necessary…" The gasps extended between the king and the captain of the guard as they directed their gazes to the castle rafters. Hiten nibbled on his drying cuticles negligently from where the heat of the flames had cracked the skin around his nails.

"Fiend!" The captain demanded, stepping in front of the king as he unsheathed his curvaceous blade. "How did you get past the guards!?" Hiten cut his gaze through the shadows of the ceiling and down to the man's demand without amusement.

"You're kidding, right?" He sighed heavily from where his back was braced against a thick post and raised the leg he had been dangling in relaxation from the ceiling rafter. "If you are so concerned about their wellbeing, let me put your mind at ease." The captain of the guard recoiled as Hiten kicked down a corpse nearby where he was sitting among the rafters. The lifeless mound of flesh thudded loudly against the once clean floorboards as it connected with the ground beneath him. "No sense worrying about a dead man now is there?"

"M-onster!" The captain accused furiously through his terror. Hiten snorted in amusement and leapt down from the beams of the ceiling with a soft grunt.

"Mn, clearly you have yet to meet my brother…" He slowly approached the king's throne, not paying much mind to the two men circling around each other in defense of his presence. He reached out and poked the material lining the king's lavish throne. "Hmm – This is nice. How come I don't have one of these?" Against the captain of the guard's suggestion, the king stepped before the curious thunder demon.

"Take it!" The king offered lowly in compromise, immediately questioning his reason the moment Hiten cut his innocently masked gaze to where the men clamoured among themselves.

"Oh?" He mused softly, taking a step towards the now vulnerable king. "What makes you think I would want your royal hand-me-downs?" The king bravely stood his ground as he reasoned with the demon, his reserve unshaken as he continued.

"I care not what you take as long as you spare my people." He thundered regally. "I can offer you wealth and land but my people are sacred to me." Hiten quirked an eyebrow in amusement.

"Tell me… lord whoever you so claim to be…" He sat casually on the king's throne and braced his elbows on the arm rests, raising one set of fingers to his lips. "What purpose does a demon have for currency?" He suggested softly, maintaining an unusual air of complacency. "Where I come from you survive because you are strong, not because your halls are lined in gold…"

"Do not be foolish, demon." Hiten's gaze flashed impatiently as he cut it back to the arrogant aura surrounding the king.

"Sire, you cannot reason with h-" The captain was cut off abruptly by the king's determined roar.

"Silence!" The king ordered sternly. "I know where you come from, son of Warlord Ryura." The side of Hiten's face quirked reflexively with the king's accusations and his blood began to boil all over again. "You live in ruin; a castle with no walls, a land with no crop… Even a demon needs essential comforts to survive, especially when they are the last of their dying kind." Hiten remained complacent as he slowly rose from the old king's throne. He let his gaze wander slightly, slowly nodding his head in false agreement before allowing his searing gaze to dart back towards his host.

"The only comfort… essential to my contentedness…" Hiten started slowly, approaching the king who stood bravely across the room. "Is watching your men scatter about your green lands like insects…" He saw the king's throat work as he grew nearer but the old fool had held his guard at bay. "Listening to your women scream… as I claim their virtue…" He cut his fierce crimson gaze back to the corpse he had dropped from the ceiling. "My wretched father was kind to leave you and your army of fire ants something behind to rebuild… women to breed with… But I assure you… when I have finished with this place, _nothing_ will remain…" The captain of the guard called out to the king and tackled him to the ground the moment a call came from the gates where archers had situated themselves in wait. By the time Hiten had shifted his gaze to where the men were assembled, the arrows had already been released. With sharp reflexes he flipped backwards with an exasperated breath and bought himself enough time to deliver a devastating crack of lightning to the far reaches of the room; incinerating the remainder of his threat with a concussive snap. He growled lowly, tearing a leanly tipped arrow from where it had buried itself in his shoulder before returning his attention to the fallen king and captain of the guard. Suddenly, he felt the splitting pain of steel piercing his flesh all over again. His crimson gaze widened in puzzlement as he slowly turned to face what he could only imagine was the king's son holding the captain's sword in defence.

"No!" The king called out in denial, scrambling to his feet. Hiten slowly turned to face the trembling boy, the hot trail of his blood rolling over his flesh beneath his breastplate. He watched the boy cower as he reached back and slipped his fingers over the folded steel; wincing with the slice the blade had put in his hand with the force he had required to remove it.

"Please, don't hurt father!" The boy demanded through trembling breaths and teary eyes. Hiten's breath caught apprehensively as he tossed the sword to the ground negligently and shifted his attention to where the young boy stood his ground; the boy had become him. *_"No! Stop! I won't let you hurt her anymore!" He shook his head and stood bravely at his father's feet; tears still stinging his eyes as his father's figure turned away like his threat meant nothing._* Hiten's expression darkened bitterly as he reached down and wrapped his bloodied hand around the child's throat.

"No don't hurt him!" He ignored the father's desperate cries as he raised the child off the ground and observed the panicked expression of the boy diluting with his pain.

"I'm doing you a favor… boy…" He hissed lowly beneath his breath. "A life of vengeance is empty and unsatisfactory." The young boy's eyes widened with terror as his round cheeks coloured with asphyxiation. "And in no world… could you ever exact your revenge on me…" He whispered lowly. With the tension leaving the boy's body with his loss of conscience, he tightened his grip to finish him off; his fragile bones breaking beneath his bloodied grasp. Hiten rolled his neck stiffly as he redirected his attention to the king as he crawled towards his fallen son, drowned in his tears. He slowly picked up the commander's sword, swiftly dispatching him with his own blade. He then approached his final target; the rest would burn beneath Manten's brutal hand. He was feeling much lighter with the effect of recent events now that he had tasted fear and suffering once more. He flinched when the king approached him and fisted his hands in Hiten's pants.

"Please… end me as you have my son…" The older man whimpered pitifully. "Do not leave me… to linger…" Hiten scoffed in disgust, kicking the man away from his ankles.

"Everything inside me would love nothing more than to watch you rot in the wastes just to spite your final wishes…" He snarled venomously. "Now that would have been… something that _he _would have done…" His upper lip quirked reflexively as he dragged the captain's sword forwards, propelling it up beneath the king's chin and through his fragile mortal skull. He diverted his attention queasily as the king gurgled up blood in attempts at a few final breaths before death overcame him. He sighed heavily and stumbled backwards with an airy feeling overcoming his senses. "Well that was certainly entertaining." He mentioned in observance to the still air in the halls. He raked his fingers through his bangs and leapt towards the ceiling to knock his pike out of the rafters. He took a step away from where the flames had started to grow near as they spread from the corpses remaining of the archers that dared to cross him. He wiped his brow and held his hand to the wound through his chest; furrowing his brows curiously with the growing amount of blood staining his shirt. "Little brat…" He cursed bitterly, turning his attention to where the boy's body lay motionless on the floor. "I should have-" His crimson gaze flashed with the startled scream meeting his ears as the hall filled with the shrill cries of a young woman holding her hands over her mouth. Hiten stood broadly in emotionless observance for a long moment before his lips raised slyly to one side in succession.

"A daughter…" He mused fondly, approaching the young woman as she screamed in shock and horror over her family's bodies. "How fortunate for me…" Upon realising that he was approaching her, the woman gave chase and started to scamper towards an escape. "Ah-ah-ah… Easy, pet…" He crooned softly, capturing her arm beneath his bloody fingers. He twisted her back around towards him and pinned her tight to his chest; stroking her hair gently as she squirmed and fought his hold. "Mmn… not so fast princess…" He whispered softly against her head as he restrained her. "I have use for you yet…"


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four **

Hiten grinned in amusement as he watched his brother terrorizing the village's most currently widowed women persistently; making a rather sad attempt at trying to run them down. He sighed contently to himself and adjusted the woman he had slung over his shoulder, careful to avoid the collapsing beams as he emerged from the castle. "Manten." He offered roughly, pleased when Manten's attention immediately turned to him.

"Ooo perfect timing brother… I must say, I have run out of use for these humans." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly with an uncertain chuckle, in full knowledge that he had no chance in claiming any of them for the night. Manten displayed an unshakable loyalty to his brother, thus diminishing any thoughts of jealousy that he may have harboured towards his human looking friend. He would accept yet another lonely night so long as he saw the look of contentment cross his troubled brother's features once more.

"I would have to agree with you then. Let's return." Manten quickly chased after his brother with a delightfully curious expression and observed the slumbering features of the woman lying against Hiten's wounded shoulder.

"I see you've collected a stray; is she alive?" He inquired inquisitively as he quickened his pace to catch up with his brother's stride. He tilted his head to one side to try and get a better look of the woman's face through her thick head of hair.

"Yep, for the meantime." Hiten assured him with a distant shrug. "Just unconscious." Manten raised a brow curiously and paused mid-stride; now if only he had such an approach to abducting his women.

"Interesting… However did you manage that?" Manten asked energetically tapping his fingers together with a devious grin. Hiten turned on his heels and offered his brother a sly, mischievous grin.

"I removed my pants, of course." Manten belted out uncontrollable fits of laughter, more than aware that the possibilities of such an approach were unlikely. Hiten flashed a single fang and cut his narrowly amused gaze back into the flames. "But for yourself; I would suggest something like smoke inhalation or a solid knock to the head." He teased enthusiastically.

"Ah! Good to have you back brother!" Manten assured him happily, striding off after him and through the smoke of the flames that worked on incinerating the village; fulfilling Hiten's promise. There would be nothing left.

Hiten sighed blissfully and took a long drink from the jug he had kept by his bedside; delighting in the airy embrace of the alcohol's high as it overtook his tired senses. He winced softly with the position he'd found himself in, tipping his head far enough back to strain the muscles in his arm as he drank. He recoiled forwards with a haggard cough, quickly setting his drink down. "Fucking little bastard…" He hissed hoarsely. Despite retaining a quick ability to recover and a highly developed pain tolerance, his shoulder ached unpleasantly. The distraught child never held a hope in actually dispatching him but rendering one of his arms next to useless for the remainder of the evening was clearly within his youthful grasp. Despite his resentment for the crippling pain caused by the adolescent back in the castle, he wouldn't help but feel envious of the child's fate.

A sudden shiver stole his spine as a damp, freshly warmed cloth was placed on his flesh, dabbing roughly at his tender naked wounds. He drew his arm back reflexively but restrained the sensation he had to strike the young woman behind him as she tended to his wounds; he settled for a low, unimpressed growl instead. "You know, for such a gentle creature, you sure are rough." He observed sarcastically, flinching away from her aggression. "You know, these sorts of displays are supposed to be erotic." She didn't raise her eyes from her cloth as she continued to clean the blood and ash from his bare skin.

"Apologies… my lord…" Her voice was rough with the presence of her tears lingering and her touch was equally as effected by her hate for the man who had taken her in. Hiten rolled his head to one side and stared into the candle light of the room; relaxing once more against her touch.

"How curious…" He stated smoothly, feeling in increasingly better spirits since his return. "You refer to me as 'my lord' yet I am far from a lord and even further from yours." He swished his alcohol around in its jug as he pondered the sentiment. "Verrry curious…" Behind him, the young woman wrung out her bloodied cloth, trying to keep her stomach from rolling as she cleaned her master's wounds.

"I heard whispers that you were the son of the great Warlord Ryura… If that is true, then you carry noble blood." The girl spoke softly behind him, her tone flat and emotionless as she carried on with her assigned duties. "Would that not make you a lord as well?" Hiten tensed uneasily and slowly shifted from where he was sitting with his back to the woman. He raised his darkening crimson gaze to her steeling grey one and lowered his once humorous tone.

"Listen carefully now as I correct all of the things wrong with the sentence you just spoke…" He rumbled lowly. "You are correct in assuming that I share his blood but I assure you, there is nothing great or noble about it…" He kept his gaze locked on her unfaltering expression as he spoke, despite the fact that her gaze had long been diverted away from his own. "Second, I am lord of nothing." Growing impatient with her lack of attention he reached out and cupped her chin in his hand, roughly jerking her concentration back to where he spoke before her. "My father hasn't a noble bone in his body in the sense that you mortals would consider. He took what superiority he held by force; exploiting the fear and weakness in his subject's hearts." The woman's expression didn't alter as she offered her reply.

"Is that not what you are doing as well… my lord?" His upper lip flinched in response as he quickly released her face.

"Perhaps…" He rumbled softly, once again directing his attention elsewhere. "Do I frighten you, princess?" He muttered dismally, hating the resentment rising inside him once more.

"I suppose. Although it seems foolish for you to refer to me as such seeing as I am now princess… of _nothing_…" Hiten quickly cut his gaze back to the woman's bleak expression as she stared into the bucket of warm water by her lap. He returned to where he faced the girl, offering her the wound he had received from her warrior's arrows.

"I do suppose that would sound strange…" He mused in challenge, observing her in admiration as she worked to clean his frontal wounds. She remained distant, refusing to allow her gaze to meet his as she obeyed his commands; so he instead let his guilty intensions indulge. "Tell me, how does it feel to be the last…?" He asked more in inquiry than in sinister intent. "Knowing that your home has been destroyed and your people have all faded away…" He watched her dab her cloth back in her warm water bucket before continuing with her duties.

"Lonely, I suppose…" She murmured sadly, trying to retain her reserve from wavering with the impact of his questions. "Or perhaps… not at all…" She whispered softly. He shifted against the blankets laid out on the floor beneath them and moved closer to the young woman, bracing the weight of her face with his forefinger as he tipped her gaze back to his.

"What is your name, woman?" He inquired sharply, his bafflement growing more apparent with the lack of emotion demonstrated by his new pet.

"It is Hikari, with respect… my lord." He let his head roll to one side in observance of her tear stains as she attempted to divert her gaze once more.

"Hm… You are sharp." He whispered warmly, brushing her tousled hair from her face. "Beautiful, as well… You assure me that you are frightened, but I can't see it in your face. Surely you wouldn't be foolish enough to deceive me…" He warned gently.

"Never, my lord." She replied complacently. "I have long since accepted my fate. It would do me poorly to challenge you and hasten its approach." Hiten's brows furrowed curiously and he released his hold on her, watching the pain flicker in her cool, misty gaze.

"Your fate?" He encouraged enquiringly. She offered him a gentle nod in confirmation, her lips trembling with her sharp inhale.

"I am wise to your ways, my lord. Most women in the area are." She admitted sheepishly, wringing out her cloth in absent distraction. "We are warned away from succumbing to your influence but if we are to be taken in by it; we are assured we will never see home again." She blinked back what he could only imagine were fretful tears as she lowered her gaze once more. "I am well aware that I will not see the dawn, my lord. All I can hope…" He watched her throat work as her reserve cracked and she started to let her emotions become apparent to his observation. "Is that when you see no further use for me… my death comes swiftly…" Hiten sighed softly as he reached out and embraced the trembling woman, guiding her to lay her head on his bare chest as he held her.

"Yes…" He assured her softly, his whisper gentle against her hair. "You will die, Hikari…" She squeaked sorrowfully against him but despite her tension, he didn't release her. Instead, he worked his fingers into her hazelnut colored hair and let her sob defencelessly against him. "But I promise when you do… it will be beautiful…" He felt her shudder violently against him in disgust and he slowly released her, allowing her to escape the thoughts of her death. She moved to flinch away from his fingertips as they brushed gently over the swell of her cheek, but his determined gaze warned her against it. "You remind me of my mother…" He whispered softly, grateful when her gaze met his once more. "So strong… beautiful…" Hikari shifted her gaze and blinked back her tears hopefully.

"Was she just as black hearted as your father…?" She inquired bitterly, hoping not to awaken her captor's wrath. Hiten only shook his head softly in denial, laying his hands on either side of her fair skin as he held her face.

"No…" He assured her softly, his sated, heavy lidded gaze wandering over Hikari's gentle curves. "She was kind and warm… If my father was the moon, then she would have been the sun…" Hikari began to relax against him, his intimidation fading from her comprehension. "She was everything that a woman should be… Innocent, compassionate, loyal… She didn't deserve her fate… She deserved to be cherished and protected by the man who claimed to love her… but instead he only betrayed her devotion."

"Betrayed…?" Hikari managed softly, curious as to what fate had befallen his mother.

"She left me the day my father razed our home to the ground." He whispered softly, his lips nearer to hers than any man's had ever been. "With nothing but a cold, empty stare; beckoning me to join her… and I should have…" He admitted with longing in his solemn tone. "Instead… my father left me to remain in a cruel, heartless world without her. I never forgave him... and I'll never forget…" With a gentle sigh he crept forwards and leaned his chin on her shoulder to watch his fingers work the sash at her lower back until the bow became undone. The tip of his nose gently brushed her neck as she trembled against him, whimpering softly and trying to avoid his touch as it explored her. When he had untied the bow at her back he slowly retreated, keeping his gaze lowered as he worked her sash loose around her trembling body. "That… my sweet princess Hikari… is why you must die…" He lifted his gaze to observe the gentle tears rolling down over her powdered cheeks. "I took everything from you…" He inhaled deeply before releasing an elongated, trembling sigh against her chin. "You have no further purpose here… no reason… to linger…"

"And what of… your purpose…?" She inquired hopefully, praying that he had somehow taken pity on her circumstance. "What is it you have to keep you among us…?" He took her face in his hands and drew her to his lips, her breathless surrender unintentionally seductive as a soft gasp passed her lips.

"Nothing…" He whispered breathlessly. He raised his hands between them despite there being very little distance left for him to maneuver his touch. He gently parted her brightly colored floral kimono pushing it lightly over her shoulders. "Be still…" He whispered against her ear as she trembled violently against him. "Allow me to cherish you in your final hours…" He slipped his palm warmly around her bare sides and supported her lower back as he laid her out beneath him.

"M-my lord… but your wounds..." She suggested hastily, desperate to escape the intimacy of his intimidating presence. He groaned softly and pressed his lips to her neck, raking his fingers up one of her thighs to guide it along his hips.

"Will have healed by the morrow." He whispered softly into her shoulder. "They are a poor excuse for your fear…" He brushed her palm away from where she had covered her bare breasts and laid it alongside her head where her hair flowed over the floorboards beneath her. "Your mother gifted you with beauty that I intend on basking in… I promise you, princess… I will be the last demon you ever fear…"

"M-my lord…" Hikari whimpered helplessly in denial, turning away from where his face neared her own. She winced and let out a desperately startled cry when he captured her tear dampened face in his hand, turning her devastated gaze to face him once more.

"The name my mother gave me is Hiten…" He rumbled softly against her lips. "So if you are to use any, let it be that one…" He stroked the side of her face affectionately softening his gaze as he neared her. "It holds more value than any lordship in any kingdom…" Hikari blinked back her tears, keeping her uncertain gaze on the unnaturally colored eyes of the man embracing her.

"Hi-ten…" His throat worked as he released her face and stroked her hair back behind her ear.

"Better…" He assured her warmly in a gentle nature, resting his lips on her own. "Now, my precious pet; put your hands on me…"

Manten sighed dismally and slowly pushed Hiten's door all the way closed, slinking away from his post where he had observed his brother. The young princess and the alcohol Manten had catered to him had worked nicely as a subtle distraction from the thoughts plaguing Hiten's unconscious mind; but he doubted that such a diversion would last the night. Listening to the interactions between Hiten and the new bed wench Hikari only strengthened Manten's belief in Hiten's true suffering; something Manten never thought would have affected his hot tempered, unfeeling, cold-hearted brother. He missed his mother? Manten shook his head sadly, his brows furrowing in disbelief. It had been decades since Hiten's father had destroyed their home, taking the life of Hiten's mother the night he disappeared.

To someone like Manten, the thought seemed juvenile. His own mother had been long since assassinated by demon slayers; along with his father and many other innocent demons that worked hard to mind their own business to live an honest life. Hiten on the other hand seemed greatly affected even in his adulthood. When Manten took a moment to think about all the nights he had watched Hiten staring off dismally into the distance, his expression void of bitter hate, filled with anguish and longing, he would not have first guessed that such an expression could retain thoughts of his mother. He had shown up by Hiten's chambers hoping to find a cure for what thoughts plagued him but he never thought that clearing his troubled mind would involve resurrecting a decade old corpse.

Manten flinched with the break of silence as the halls filled with lusting moans; Hiten's dark command reverberating lowly through the cracks in the weathered walls. One skill that Manten could never comprehend was Hiten's ability to make any woman, no matter how shrewd or defiant, lust for him. He had watched as Hiten told Hikari that she would die before the sun rose so how was she now calling so desperately for his attention? He groaned softly with Hikari's desperate, pained cries as Hiten claimed her innocence, leaving Manten to return to his own lonely chambers in agony. If he was lucky, when his brother was done he may have seen it fit to throw him a bone; or in his current case, the woman. Unfortunately for the reptilian demon, Hiten seemed quite fond of his current lay; he would no doubt retain the intimate moment of ending her to himself.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

The temptation to open his eyes grew with the feeling of her breaths on his lips, gentle and even. He sighed softly, carefully trying to remain still beneath her as she laid her hands alongside his face. Against his intensions, one of his fingers flinched anxiously as his desperation to hold her grew intolerable. Feeling her breath catch against his lips, tensing her arms alongside his face, he reached out slowly and captured one of her retreating wrists. "Stay…" He encouraged breathlessly, irritated with the desperation bleeding into his tone that remained husky with sleep. He guided her palm back to his bare chest, keeping his eyes closed as he drew in her presence. He was delighted to feel her lips returning to his own, curling into an affectionate smile as she slipped her fingers into his hair. His brows furrowed softly in dismay with her startled gasp and he denied his ambitions once more, careful not to open his eyes.

"You're wounded…" She whispered softly, dragging her fingertips gently over the subtly bloodied bandage. He slowly drew his hand back to his chest and let his fingers intertwine with hers just beneath his wound.

"I'll be fine if you stay…" He assured her softly, brushing his thumb delicately over the top of her dainty hand. He was delighted when the feeling of her hair falling down around his face returned and he caught the slightest hint of her comfortingly familiar scent. "Say you'll stay…" He murmured his breathless plea against her full, seductive pout as she let it tease his senses.

"And what if I did…?" She suggested softly, a playful purr in her voice as she mused her words even more closely to his wanting touch. He could feel her naked breasts pressing against his chest now as she grew nearer, bracing herself over top of him as he 'slumbered'. His brows furrowed in restraint as his reserve wavered with his need to look upon her. With a slow, trembling approach, he drew his hand forwards until he could feel the charge of her presence nearby. With a low, affectionate groan, he slipped his fingers into her hair before advancing until he could wrap his hand around the back of her head to draw her nearer. He exhaled deeply as he parted his lips to speak, intoxicated with the feeling of the nearness he had invited with his tightening grip on the roots of her hair.

"You would never want again…" He offered softly, gently messaging the back of her scalp in reassurance to detour her soft, lusting whimpers. "Nobody… would ever adore you more…" His grip tightened in her long, wild strands and he became increasingly more desperate for a chance to look upon her soft features. "I wouldn't let them…" He hissed lowly, his upper lip quirking in response to his need to curl his once contented features into a furiously bitter scowl. His breath caught with the feeling of her warm touch as it embraced his face, her fingers lying alongside his jaw.

"Tell me you'll love me… forever…" Her whisper was desperate and full of longing as she brushed her lips lightly against his, her body trembling with her body's dark desires. She let out a gentle squeal of bewilderment as his second hand joined his first in her hair, forcing her restraint as his voice grew hoarse with his building lust.

"I will cherish you until the day I die and forever after." Nothing made him feel more strongly about the words he spoke than the feeling of her timid moans as he dragged her lips against his. His chest ached proudly as she parted her lips submissively beneath his demand, his tongue slipping between her teeth to claim her passionately. He instinctively found his body growing tense with his indulgence and he instinctively rose against her, sitting up in his bed. His hands were tight against her head, working her silken strands between his fingers as her soft lips embraced him welcomingly. His heart raced as she braced her knees on either side of his hips, pressing her breasts into his bare skin as she laid her delicate touch on his shoulders. Moments spent of their intimate embrace had her trembling subsiding and her palms slowly crawled over his shoulders to where she feel the loose strands of his hair against his shoulder blades.

His bare flesh tingled beneath the heat of her skin and he burned every feeling into his memory; her taste, the feel or her skin and the gentle strokes of her tongue against his. Escaping his conscious perception she had raised her palms between them and stroked his bangs from where they had clung to his brow against the perspiration raised with his anxiety. He would curse himself later for the desperation rising in his voice as she slowly started to slip away from him, no matter how tight he held her. "I must go now…" She whispered gently against his lips, damp and tingling with her presence. He clung to her desperately, trying to drown his growing fury with his guilty weakness.

"No…" He all but whimpered before her, desperate to remain in her warm embrace. "Please… don't leave me…" He pressed his forehead to hers and his senses started to fade. If he were an animal with claws, he would have sunk them into her flesh as he clenched her tightly; terrified of the emptiness he'd embrace the moment his eyes finally opened. She stroked the back of his head softly, pushing his hair back behind his shoulders. He started to tremble with the feeling of her tears falling inconspicuously onto his chest, hot with her regret.

"I cannot…" She whispered solemnly, whining with the restraint it took to conceal her inner suffering. "I mustn't…" He shook his head violently and ground his teeth hard in his head.

"Which is it?! You can't or you must not!?" He demanded bitterly, moments from opening his eyes for even the slightest hope of laying his exhausted gaze on her beautiful features. "I need… you…" He assured her certainly, his voice husky with his rage. Despite his steeling grip on the soft fibers of her hair, she began to slip away from him as he returned to a conscious state. "No… don't go…" Behind his eyelids he couldn't see the gentle smile she offered him upon parting, her tears shimming over her cheeks as they slipped away from her cool sapphire gaze.

"Be strong…" She whispered whimsically, her fingers intertwining with his as she struggled to remain by his side for an extended final moment. "I will return to you… if only briefly in your dreams…" She promised gently with the sweet encouragement of an optimist. "For nothing is stronger than the love shared between a mother… and her child…"

He shook his head frantically and the moment he felt the sting of what he presumed was a tear threatening to fall after over forty years of eye dry, he narrowly parted his eyelids to stare into the black of his cold, drafty bed chambers. "No…" He muttered hoarsely, narrowing his gaze painfully with a solemn furrowing of his brows. "Mother… don't leave me… Not here…" His body tightened as he lowered his head, trembling with a dangerous rise of conflicting emotions. He raked his fingers strongly through his bangs, crimson strands of electricity lighting the dim room near his scalp as they crawled over his trembling fingertips. "Please…" He shook his head and closed his eyes, his body shaking as he lurched forwards with a furious cry; his fists tight at his sides and ready to kill.

"WHY!?" He cried out to the still of the room. "Why did you take her from me!?" He ground his teeth and shuddered violently with his unstable state of mind. As he slowly opened his eyes, his gaze narrowed and furious as it glared into the hollowed walls of his fire scared chambers. His breathing was rough and uneven as he drew it, his lungs stinging with the intake of the stale air as if it were a suffocating toxin. "Wh-hy…?" He snarled venomously, his livid crimson gaze flashing with a devastating crack of thunder proceeding streaks of crimson lightning across the darkened sky. Images of his father's triumphant, demeaning stare plagued his conscious thoughts as he boiled over for revenge unsatisfied. *A young Hiten bounded through the ashy fields surrounding their kingdom with an innocent smile on his blood covered face. He skidded to a breathless halt and drew his hands from behind his back, a blooming, midnight colored bud between them. "For you... mother." He brushed away the small, beading droplets of blood from the flower's petals with a sheepish grin. His mother didn't hesitate once as she drew the blossom to her lips and kissed the petals softly beneath the moonlight.

She slowly leaned down and pressed her lips to his forehead, her gentle words soft against his brow. "Find beauty in tragedy, my son…" She pressed the flower to her breast and closed her eyes, wrapping one arm around him. "Remember that tears are as diamonds… and blood is as roses…" He stared into the curling leaves of the wilting flower he had picked from the earth. "The beauty of this moment…" She offered him a glance at the wilting flower in her palm. "Was brought to us by the death of these leaves…" His lips parted uncertainly as he noted his mother's wise words. "Find the beauty, my son…" She whispered softly, holding him gently against her bosom. "And cherish it…"* Lightning illuminated the snake's eyes behind him as he glared through the shadowed cracks in his walls. He shuddered violently, but refused to blink and release the tears he felt growing heavy on his eyelids. "I hate you…" He whispered venomously through bared teeth.

"Father… No manor of hell could reprimand you justly…" The side of his face quirked with his enraged scowl, twisting his expression dark and hateful. "Enjoy it while it lasts… because when I arrive; you will suffer damnation like you have never before imagined!" He finally sealed his eyelids and allowed his tears to fall hot on his face as he shook his mind clear. He was oblivious to the shadowed tail of the wall-serpent binding him; embracing the darkness swelling in his bitter heart. His ears rung so loudly with the echoed beat of his racing heart that he didn't once hear the hissing of the wall's around him chanting in encouragement as he suffered alone in the dark, silent abyss that became his place of sanctuary. "I will have it!" He roared conclusively, his voice breaking with the rasp brought on by his aching heart. His flashing crimson gaze flew opened; his pupils narrowing with his widening gaze as lightning scorched the sky wildly outside his castle walls. With his enraged roar, the serpent leapt from the boards of the wall; it's shadowed body passing right through his own without his notice as it incinerated with the flash of lightning that it leapt towards. "I will have my _revenge_!"

He immediately came to regret that he had ended the princess's life so soon when he wandered out the next morning to find Manten missing from his own room down the narrowed corridor. With a low, unimpressed growl, he turned away from what looked to be a note to Manten's whereabouts scribbled in, what Hiten assumed, was poor penmanship on a half-burnt piece of parchment. He threw his hair back out of his face seeing as he hadn't bothered tying it back that morning; anything to escape the walls of his chambers more quickly. Hiten's brows furrowed dismally as he tore the note down and crumpled it up in his palm with a heavy sigh; he had never learned to read… or write, for that matter. His father had insisted on keeping him occupied with survival training; conditioning him for the durable, superior life of a warrior. It seemed ironic that so many years later; his father was really only conditioning him to endure the hardships of life once he was left abandoned in what remained of his ruined childhood. Despite his illiterate upbringing, though, he had managed well in the way of communication and comprehension. He could still feel his mother's comforting presence as she held him in her lap; her voice soothing and full of excitement as she brought her stories to life. She didn't deny him the horrors of the world's unseen, nor did she deny him any less time with the romantic; she vastly educated him of all matters of fantasy, dark and light.

*Hiten's eyes widened in anticipation as the swell of the stories climax welled within his mother's excited vocal chords. She swished her hand from side to side with the motion she spoke of the wind mimicking in gentle gusts outside the walls of their kingdom. "And that was when the most astonishing of things happened!" She assured him gently. "The clouds were parted with shimmering sun rays as golden as you're jewelry!" He laughed softly and squirmed away from her as she batted at the small hoop of his earring. She poked his nose with a gentle smile before raising her free hand once more, her other arm wrapped snuggly around her child as he snuggled against her side intently. "Then… from the part in the sky… a beautiful maiden lowered herself to the rocky earth beneath. She leaned forwards and brushed her fingertips ever-so-gently over the abrasive surface; dismayed with her discovery. She then wrapped her arms around what she could of her bare flesh, twisting her head with her alertness." Hiten let his head fall to one side solemnly with furrowed brows.

"Mother? Are there other demons out there more aware than we are?" His mother nodded with a gentle smile at her observant son's inquiry.

"Yes of course dear." She agreed softly. "There are demons in this world with talents beyond your imagining." His crimson eyes glowed with curiosity and wonder as the flames of their dying candle danced in the reflection of his eyes. "Such as this lovely demon in our story…" She offered, trying to keep his wandering mind on their trajectory. "She was birthed of the sun as a delicate ember. She was gifted with a high tolerance to flames and a talent for bending them to her will."

"WOW! Like a fire demon?!" He demanded in amazement.

"Shh… my son. Your father will hear." She hushed him softly with a small giggle. "Yes indeed. There are those out there in control of elements much like our own." She divulged, hiking up the blanket covering their bodies. "We are descendents of God's themselves. Through our blood, we bring balance to what disorder earth had seen before the first of us walked."

"Like the sun's ember?" He whispered excitedly. With a heartwarming smile she brushed his lengthening bangs from his face.

"Yes my son… like the sun's ember…"* He let the crumpled ball of paper slip out of his hand with the gradual release of tension embracing its fibres. He had never really seen himself growing to hate so strongly, never believed that he could be capable of the kind of fierce passionate loathing effectively driving him to slaughter out of vengeance and bitter spite; but he had.

His breathing caught subtly and he let his downward gaze open with the feeling of warm flesh pressing up against his own. He swallowed dryly as her fingers wrapped around his hips and explored the hard lines of his abdomen just above the belt line of his pants. She had always been so beautifully maintained; the life of a queen assured that. He raised his hand and worked his fingers beneath his observation. His hands were rough, his fingertips constantly bloody despite his ability to regenerate more rapidly than most creatures. He had developed a nasty habit of biting the dry skin around his cuticles out of anxiety and no matter how bad his fingers looked as a result, no matter how badly it hurt sometimes; he didn't stop. He blinked a couple of times before diverting his attention back to her soft, well oiled hands embracing his lower body. He let his fingers slip between her own before he gently caressed the back of her hand. Her hands were always attractive, he remember it as clearly as anything from the days of his youth. Her nails were kept long but clean; her palms kept oiled to allow her touch to remain soft. She had maintained a comforting motherly embrace through all of his years. She had never needed to kill; never needed to survive… all she ever did was love.

"You're restless, Hiten…" She whispered against what little of his shoulder blade remained accessible from beneath his long, unrestrained hair at his back. "Talk to me…" She murmured softly, her soft lips caressing his flesh as she spoke her words against his skin. He tightened his grip on her hand and let his gaze rise in observance of the dimly lit halls ahead of him.

"He betrayed us... mother." He whispered hoarsely, his body unusually relaxed as he spoke of his father's betrayal. "He took you away from me… destroyed our home…" He hung his head and let his eyes drift shut. "These halls were once filled with warmth… and candlelight."

"And love?" She suggested encouragingly, her fingers intertwining intimately with his.

"You did your best…" He murmured lowly, the rasp of his pain rising in his tone once more. He was disappointed when she released her hold on his hand to circle his body and when he cut his peripheral gaze over his shoulder, her teary eyed gaze was revealed to him upon her approach.

"You are becoming him…" She whispered breathlessly in warning, her lips parting as her brows furrowed sadly. She reached out and laid her hand on his chest, shaking her head slowly in denial.

'Black.' Hiten's gaze narrowed sternly with the echoing of the shadowy serpents words in his ears. He quickly cut his gaze around the dimly lit hall, returning it to his mother's when he determined that they were still alone.

"I'm not like him…" He rumbled huskily in demand. He reached out and took her hand in his, raising it to his face; placing a gentle kiss on her palm before he laid it against his jaw line. "He took your devotion in vain… You raised me, loved me… I could never turn you away as coldly as he did…" He sighed blissfully as her palm crept along his jaw and over his neck with her single step in advance.

"Of course you have my love." She whispered gently against his chin. "But what of your love, my son?" He cleared his throat awkwardly with the catch of his breath in his lungs.

"Don't think that it is any weaker than your own…" He assured her uncertainly.

"Then say it…" She whispered against his lips with her next step towards his body. "Why can't you tell your mother you love her?" He turned his head away and shifted his down cast gaze over the cracks in the weathered floorboards.

"You've been gone for so long…" He started uneasily, his fist instinctively clutching at his side with his bitterness. "I have forgotten such a feeling entirely…" He cut his gaze back to his mother's, his desperation showing in his pained expression. "Remind me what it's like…?" He narrowed his gaze with his sedation as he drew closer to her gentle expression, his nose brushing against her cheek as she offered herself shyly to his seduction. "Remind me of the compassion and gentle embrace of the purest loves… Come back to me, or take me with you; I've come to care less about where my existence lies so long as it's with you…" He closed his eyes and reached out to lace his fingers in her hair, moulding her against his embrace. "Before I cross into a place in which I cannot return…" He brought his hands to either side of her face and tipped her head back so that their gazes could meet. "I refuse to become a shadow of my father's blood lust and paranoia…" He assured her sternly, his expression darkening in determination. "Save me from that fate, mother. I could never betray you like he has…" She cut her gaze sharply back to his own, her dark lashes heavy over her crystal irises as they watched his composure as it wavered.

Her gaze shifted to the darkened scales of the serpent as it swam through the hall walls like they were the earth beneath them. The creature's sharp, menacing gaze cut swiftly from side to side with the observance of the still rooms of the castle. Her expression softened once more as she offered it to him, her smile gentle and comforting as she leaned on her toes to press her lips against his for the briefest of moments. "It is not me you seek to betray, my son…" She whispered softly against his anxiously parted lips. His grip on her tightened as he tried to draw her closer; but despite his obvious strengths over the frail creature, she was unaffected by his display. "It is yourself…" His mother's final words echoed in his head the moment his next blink had her vanishing from beneath his fingertips. His fingers curled in on themselves as he flexed them irately, his body aching with the frustrated tension tightening his muscles. He slowly closed his eyes with the reflexive flinch in his upper lip, twisting his expression into a furious scowl.

"The only way I could betray myself is if I let you escape me once more…" He muttered silently to himself with silent hopes of her overhearing his warning. His lowered gaze flashed open as he shifted his attention to the cold, lifeless walls of the castle. "I will be with you, mother… in this life or the next… Father will watch as I foil his attempts at taking you away from me." He straightened and scanned the empty halls for any trace of her presence. He closed his eyes and meditated on his defeat for a moment, his heart thundering in his chest as his thoughts ran wild through his distressed mind. Slipping unnoticed off of the walls, the large bodied serpent crept through the halls of the castle behind him; its eye's remaining opened and wide with the creature's lack of eyelids. It cut its hot gaze towards the back of Hiten's body as it approached, the bloody neon trail consisting of the blood of the suffering oozing from its body upon its approach.

'Black.' Hiten ignored the whispers as they came, his gaze darkening behind sealed eyelids as he tried to escape his memories of the serpent slithering about his chamber walls. 'Black.' The hiss repeated, the echo growing weaker as the serpent grew near, diminishing the distance that must have been between them. Hiten's body tightened once more, his mind growing significantly more terrorized by the pain of his past. 'Black.' The voices were upon him now and he had to resist every urge he had to whirl on his heels and drive his fist through the beast's head; regardless of whether or not his assault would affect the castle's shadows. His eyes flew open as his mother's lips met his ear from behind him in a similar manor to the way she had approached him earlier. His heart stopped and his lips parted breathlessly beneath her presence as her breathless words whispered softly against his sensitive flesh. "Your heart…"


	6. Chapter 6

The room was still around him as he sat in wait, his legs folded beneath him and his eyes closed while meditating on his thoughts. His fingers tightened around his forearms anxiously in time with the slowing beat of his heart as he slowly started to relax with a deep inhale; his chest forcing his arms to rise as they folded over his opened shirt. The wind whistled through the cracks in the walls in his room in distraction; the room he had taken for his own, the room where he was conceived. Despite the humid air slipping through the weathered walls to tousle his loose hair behind him; he didn't move. He would wait all day if he had to, all night; even if Manten did return and attempted to interrupt him. She would come for him… he was waiting.

Each time his mother had shown herself to him, she had left him increasingly more discouraged with every parting. As a result, she had started to show up more frequently; to a point where she may as well have existed in his world with her frequent visits. He had denied thoughts of his sanity slipping long ago with the feeling of her bare skin against his; she was no fantasy, but she was dead. He had spent many nights dreaming of his mother's beauty and he always woke from his airy deception unsatisfied and sick with longing. He couldn't say why she had started to visit him after all the years he had spent cold with her memory, but he was beginning to see that there may have been a possibility that he was being deceived.

His brows furrowed softly with the gentle sound of heavy raindrops striking the roof of the castle, accompanying the symphony of thunder rolling into the valley. He hated rain, despite the ability of it to conduct the electricity he bent to his will. *A young Hiten dragged his father's weapon through the mud that lay thick in the valley; its blade carving a path into the earth as he staggered through the abandoned fields of his home. Rain pounded against the rocky terrain at his feet in heavy droplets; soaking him through to the bone. He was exhausted and his body wracked with the pain of his efforts to escape his horrible memories, hoping that his physical strength would lead his mind further from its torment. He had lost the strength to run and he was forced to linger; slowly fighting to escape the shadow of his castle as it loomed over the horizon. Tears slowly trickled down his face, concealed by the rain, as he tried desperately to force them back. 'I have to be strong...' He thought silently, his body shaking with fear and uncertainty. He had considered conversing with himself internally just to distract his mind from revisiting the cold, lifeless stare of his best friend but instead he continued to drag his feet weakly; carrying more weight on his feet with the amounts of earth he drew up on the tops of his feet with every step.

How long had he been walking; how far had he come? He shuddered at the dark reminiscences of his father's heartless betrayal; where moments ago, he had lost everything. He gasped as he stumbled on a jagged, protruding rock face and fell to the ground with a pained cry. He winced and lifted his face from the thick puddle of sludge he had tumbled into, trying to ignore the pain in his knee from where the rock had struck it bloody. He sobbed in denial of his pain and fear, looking to where his Raigekijin was lying in the mud at his side. The rain poured down around him, swells of liquid earth washing over the land to be carried away to some other distant kingdom. He wished that he was smaller so that he may have been washed away with the torrential rain waters; taken from the hate and pain that remained dank in the valley. He shuddered at the loud echo of thunder, his body still growing desensitized to such an intrusion. He slowly reached for his weapon, his only sense of security now that everyone he loved was gone. Tears streaked his face through the rain, washing the muddy water down in clean streaks like the rainwater over the earth. "Mother..." His hand shook as it supported his body, his fingertips straining weakly to even brush their skin over the shaft of his weapon. After a gentle cry of longing, his body finally gave into his exhaustion and he collapsed.*

"You look troubled, my son…" His eyes slowly opened, his narrow gaze meeting hers almost immediately. She sat on her knees before him, her hands folded respectfully in her lap like she was some manner of chamber maiden.

"How long have you been there…?" He demanded hoarsely in a soft tone, curious as to her connection to his world. "I had just thought of you…" He admitted coldly, releasing his arms from where they had rested over his chest.

"Oh?" She whispered with a soft smile accompanied by a subtle flush in her cheeks. "What thoughts did you welcome?"

"I don't welcome them…" He murmured softly in assurance. "They plague me of their own accord; I would deny them if I could." Her expression faltered softly in concern.

"You do not wish to remember me…?" She offered softly, her eyes welling with tears born of her son's rejection. She shook her head softly and held her fingers to her trembling lips. "Perhaps I should leave you… before I am rejected by you as I was your father." Hiten's dark crimson gaze cut to her timid movements as she shifted to climb to her feet and retreat back into the shadows of his mind. He lurched forwards and took a tight hold of her wrist, jerking her back down to the floor before him. He could feel it, the reassuring charge of her skin hot beneath his palm; she existed. She recoiled with a soft, uncertain gasp as he secured his grip on her and locked his gaze with hers.

"It's true… I refuse to welcome memories of you." Her brows furrowed immediately in devastation with the impact of his words. "I don't want to remember you… not like I do…" Her eyes widened and lips parted in bewilderment; unable to comprehend his meaning. She watched timidly as his throat worked with his dry swallow, his body tense with restrained aggression.

"I think it is time that I leave…" She whispered softly, desperately trying to retract her hand from where it was contained in his grasp. She whimpered suddenly when he threw his other hand around her neck, sinking his fingers into her hair. He shook his head sternly in denial as he tightened his restraint on her.

"Not this time." He growled certainly. Her startled cries were sweet as they met his lips the moment he forced her forwards into his embrace. He released her wrist to draw his hand to the flowers setting her hair; removing the clip to toss it to the floor beside them negligently allowing the release of her braids to fall loosely on either side of her face. When she parted her lips to, no doubt, deny him; he tightened his hold on the back of her neck and forced his tongue behind her teeth. Despite her desperate whimpers of denial, her hands fisting in the material of his shirt were actually drawing him in. He surfaced from their kiss abruptly with a deep inhalation to both make up for that lost and to calm his wracked nerves. He opened his eyes to survey her flushed, heavy-lidded expression before shifting his gaze to the tantalizing part in her kimono. With swift, trembling fingers he laid one hand across her lower back; using the other to pull the large bow behind her free. He pressed his chest against hers, slowly working the sash around her waist loose; his lips tasting the flesh of her neck anxiously. How was it that she was so familiar to him?

"Hiten, please… we can't…" She denied softly in false ambition, raising her hands to his shoulders. He was well aware of the way she intended her reversed psychological demands to work; she was more than willing to be held. She let her hands drift up the sides of his neck to hold him as he gently unbound her elegantly floral kimono around her waist. He pressed his lips to her ear, his voice hoarse and unrecognizable through the static of his heavy breaths.

"Be silent…" He demanded roughly, parting her kimono between their bodies regardless of how difficult their nearness had made such an effort. "You are just as lost in this world as I am; you have come to me in manners to provoke my darker desires. Don't deny the pleasures that your body sought in coming to me…" She had visited him bare before, despite his eyes remaining shut for the duration of her visit, he remembered the feeling of her skin against his so compatibly. Tipping her head back with a soft moan, she let her soft fingertips drag the collar of his shirt down over his strong arms. In response, he let one of his knuckles curl and brushed it lightly between her breasts until it met her bare navel. "Lay with me…" He suggested darkly in longing, his voice rough with his demand; the charge of her skin comfortingly erotic against his touch. "It has been years since I've tasted the flesh of my own kind… and no other has ever sated my need for intimacy like you have." She arched into his chest and slipped her fingers into his hair, holding him steadily between her breasts.

"There is nothing as comforting to a child as a mother's touch." She assured him breathlessly. She whimpered with his sudden advancement as he wrapped his fingers around her jaw, forcing her attention to return to him and his intimidating scowl.

"I'm not a child anymore." He hissed lowly against her lips. "If I was, would you have _ever_ returned to me?" He accused her bitterly. "Admit that you've been waiting for my resolve to crack; you knew what you did to me was wrong and still you let your touch linger where it had no place in being." With a timid whimper, she rested her hands against his broad chest; her embrace working at calming her short tempered son.

"Of course you aren't…" She assured him in a sweet voice; the sedation of her motherly tone bleeding into his senses to effectively sooth him. "Time has been kind to you… You have become an exceptional development in our bloodline." He cut his gaze narrowly to where she trembled lustfully against his body, her lips tasting his flesh tenderly before she spoke quietly against his ear. "Let me bear you a child…" His gaze shifted over her shoulder as he watched the lightning flash outside his castle. Even though she was breathing her confession gently against him, it still seemed hollow; as if it was echoing despite her nearness. "You are stronger than the others… You have inherited your father's power and your mother's passion. You are a credit to the blood you carry but have left yourself without a resource to share it. You are the last, my son… If you allow me this honor, our kind will thrive; returning to this world stronger than ever before…" He closed his eyes and let himself fall victim to his mother's seduction; allowing her fingertips to slide over his flesh, and under the heavy material of his pants. When he opened his eyes once more, her kimono was already laid by their sides on the floor next to his bed and she was knelt before him as bare as the day she was when she made him. She slipped her fingers between his and drew his hesitant touch from his side, laying his hands on her naked flesh. "Allow me to share my body with you… Exact all of your denied fantasies on me…" She let her lips find his ear once more as she whispered her final plea desperately against him. "And share with me… your seed."

His gaze wandered skeptically around the room, his heart thundering in his chest. Despite the woman working her hardest to seduce him being, in body, his mother; he couldn't deny the compatibility of their encounters. For lack of a better term, she sparked a life deep inside him that he had been denied with any other woman he'd laid with. She had made a compelling argument; by his honor he wouldn't let another conceive his heir because of the taint the mother's blood would bring to his line. He would end their lives once his appetite for a woman's company had been sated, protecting such an event from ever occurring. His mother had retained her perfect, curvaceous figure; a body perfect for the purpose of doing just what she had suggested. In his eyes there was no woman more worthy to do him such an honor. There was only one problem with her proposition… the uncertainty of her existence.

Concluding that if he was in fact suffering another dream, there would be no repercussions for his indulgence; he silently accepted her proposition, ultimately desperate to share such an intimate moment with the most precious woman in his life. He slipped his knuckle down from where it had remained rested at her navel and found the dark curls of her mound. Without a word breathed in inclination to his intensions, his finger curled beneath her and slipped inside her hot channel. He nuzzled affectionately into her shoulder, kissing her flesh tenderly as she whimpered and squirmed against him in acceptance. "How shameful…" He murmured softly against her nape. "Growing so hot and wet for your son…"

"That's not fair, Hiten..." She huffed out between heavy breaths. "You can't expect any woman to deny the man you've become." He let a sly grin curl his lips, flashing a single fang seductively in amusement.

"I suppose you're right..." He mused softly, slipping his fingers from inside her. He rose and lifted his nose against the jewels hanging from her earlobes. "There will be no mention of my father in my presence…" He whispered lowly in emphasized disgust, forcing himself to lay detrimental ground rules before penetrating her. "Any mention of his name in my presence will forfeit your life beneath me…" He cut his gaze back to hers as a soft breathless gasp met her lips.

"You would kill me? Your own mother…?" He groaned softly in amusement and sank his fangs shallowly into her flesh.

"For mentioning his name in my presence; yes." He assured her roughly. "He took the only person who had ever meant anything to me away. I intend on replacing him in your dreams from this night forward; it would do you good not to insult my efforts…" He let his palms rest on her wide hips; her body effectively adjusted from the days she had spent bearing her child. With the effort of his muscles contracting obediently, he raised her body and encouraged her to spread her thighs over his hips where he had been sitting before her. He quickly swatted her hand away from where she sought his growing erection beneath his pants and cupped her face gently between his hands; a soft, seductive grin displayed on his anxious features. "Be still… _mother_…" He whispered softly against her submissively parted lips. "My 'previously denied fantasies' are not shallow…" He shifted beneath her and laid her out on his bed beneath him, shifting between her restlessly parted thighs. He watched her expression waver softly in uncertainty as he guided his pants down around his rigid length.

"Y-you aren't going to undress?" She asked sheepishly, her cool blue gaze uncertain from beneath heavy lashes. His heavy gaze cut sharply back to hers with her inquiry and an unconcerned smile met his lips; quickly developing a convincing tale to detour any suspicions of the intensions he held with his weapon remaining on his belt.

"No..." He rumbled lowly, his breath heavy with his efforts as he braced one arm alongside her head to support his weight. "I'm far too anxious to take any longer in claiming you..." She offered him a wry, reluctant smile; her cheeks flushing warmly with his advance. He let his lips touch her throat as she tipped her head back with a soft moan. "Hold onto me..." He demanded in a breathless whisper against her pulse.

He let her gentle cries resonate in his ears for a moment as he slipped inside her; his own breath hitching in his throat. He would have been lying if he had have told himself he hadn't dreamt of such an intimate moment. His mother was the only woman in his life he'd ever loved, the only one he'd ever missed once she was gone. She had always been gorgeous in his eyes, in spirit and body. She had fallen before him as beautifully as she was before him in the moment he held her close and hushed her overwhelmed cries. He had aged, become a man; a man capable of holding her as a woman. She hadn't aged a bit; she was as radiant against him as she was when his father had cut her down. He let his eyelids drift open, his gaze narrowed and heavy with the derailing of his thoughts. He had to keep reminding himself that such events were more like his late night visits with her in his deepest dreams than he cared to admit. He could feel the trembling of her skin, taste her timid kiss; but no matter how perfectly she sank into his embrace, he had to shake his senses clear long enough to remember that she was dead.

He dipped low and pressed his lips against her ear under the assumption that he could be heard over her timid whimpers if he lessened the distance between them. "How does it feel to have me back inside you again, _mother_?" He rumbled sinisterly against her, his sick sense of humor returning under the emergence of his usual sadistic demeanor. He winced with a low hiss and denied his breathless groan as it rose inside him with the tightening of her body around him. How did such a repulsive lie feel so whimsically incredible? A shiver stole his flesh as her fingertips crawled along his skin and she brushed his hair back over his shoulder. "That's it..." He encouraged her softly. "Feel what I've become..." He captured the tip of her small ear between his teeth with a soft groan, the hoarse rasp in his tone returning with his malicious intent. "I was clay, molded between your fingers..." He breathed lowly, shifting his kisses along her jaw until his next guttural groans met her opposing ear. "Fired in the pits of hell and glazed with the blood of a thousand… mortal… men." He sneered darkly, his breathing hitching with the waver of his bitter tone.

Her body trembled in waves of undeniable pleasure and fear simultaneously as she clung to the motion of his body rocking against hers. Whereas he could fight the sedation of her body beneath his, she was most definitely not as mentally capable at comprehending the merging of separate sensations. "No... Hiten…" She breathed in frail denial. "It was not my will for you to be… like this." She shook her head softly in denial, tears rising behind her sealed eyes as if they were forced free by the pain of his unanticipated actions.

"Oh but it was..." He hissed resentfully against the side of her face. He threw his palm down over her throat to keep her still as she wreathed pleasantly against him despite her obvious uncertainty. Of course he wouldn't hurt his mother... "You left me to linger without you in these desolate wastes for the rest of my miserable days!" He growled lowly against her, his teeth raking gently over her trembling flesh in self-indulgence. "I developed this way because of you…" She narrowly opened her crystal eyes and flashed him her pitiful, watering gaze as if it were genuine. She reached out and laid her hand on his cheek, her polished fingertips stroking his skin amiably.

"I am so sorry... my son..." She offered him softly; regret forcing her tone to waver weakly. Her mesmeric, solemn gaze broke away from his with the pressure of her body's pleasure growing beyond her restraint. In her disorientation, he snatched her hand away from his face and drove it back to the floor beside her head; his steeling grip tight around her wrist as he restrained her.

"Be still..." He dipped low to hiss his demand shortly against her ear, his body wracked with his own denied pleasure. "In the innocence of my youth I believed my mother when she told me that the world was a beautiful place filled with the kind of compassion that she taught." He closed his eyes and denied his body the gratifying ache of release despite it fighting to overcome his restraint in powerful waves. "I loved my mother. To this day she remains the only woman I have ever shared a feeling even remotely comparable to such an emotion with."

She threw her head back with a lustful cry and allowed her body to buck pleasurably beneath his; her efforts to deliver him to such a euphoric deceit increasing with her impatience. "Yes! I love you too, my son!" She reached out and held his head in her hands, trying to bring him closer to her as she prepared her body to welcome the conception of a child. His body tightened as he denied her advance, his breathing growing labored with his mental exhaustion.

"She was the most beautiful soul that ever graced this earth and he took her away from me!" He roared, immediately baring his teeth in restraint the moment he let his emotions betray him. He let his eyes fly open the instant she reached up and pressed her lips against his. After a moment of denying her the kiss she sought, he let his body revel in one last perfect embrace. He slipped his tongue behind her lips and embraced her tightly to his chest as she removed any space between them; encouraging him to force his hips against hers and pump his undeniable release deep inside her womb to her satisfaction. His brows furrowed with disdain as he deepened their kiss, his reality bending to her will.

She was perfect in his arms; the epitome of everything his woman should be. He tried to deny the feelings that his body had experienced; deny the connection they shared. As he inched slowly away from her, his expression troubled as he worked his own tongue behind his teeth in denial of her poison, his body began to tremble weakly. She was playing a dangerous game with his heart; forcing his hand by exploiting the most compelling of weaknesses in men… their need for women. He inhaled a sharp, deep and trembling breath as he forced the image of his mother's spirit out of his head with a silent apology. He had to deny her entirely; the love he had felt for her wasn't real... she wasn't real. "No... No my son, he didn't. I'm right here..." She smiled back at him warmly in encouragement, her flushed features glowing affectionately as tears streaked the gentle curves of her face. "Alive in your arms..." His gaze narrowed coldly with a solemn expression as he starved her of a response with her attempt at placing a gentle kiss on his lips.

"You are... aren't you?" He murmured softly, staring over her shoulder soberly with one free hand falling inconspicuously to his side. She let her gaze wander over his bare shoulder, her blue gaze warming until it morphed to match the wide-eyed crimson stare returning hers from against the wall behind Hiten; the shadow of the serpents body curling tightly around their bodies beyond Hiten's notice. The serpent's jaws parted slowly with a low, distant hiss among the roll of thunder and pounding of rain on the old castle roof; its venomous fangs leaking their poison anxiously as the bulge of its presence started to push free of the wall's surface.

"There's only one problem..." Hiten whispered distantly, his fingers curling around the ornate handle of his mother's dagger as he broke his mother's isolated thoughts. She held his face in her hands and softly forced him near so that she could tenderly kiss his cheek.

"What is it, my son?" She kissed his chin softly and kept her hands wrapped snugly around his shoulders, her legs still wrapped around his lean hips. "Tell me, love; and mother will make it better..." She assured him blissfully, brushing her nose against the base of his neck in an affectionate display. He slipped his dagger from its sheath, the serpent's gaze flashing in futile warning to the woman beneath him as he rotated the blade skillfully between his fingers; thrusting it swiftly through her bared flesh beneath her breast and into her heart. With the breathless gasp of the woman beneath him as she cried out to the last moments of her coherent life, he lowered his lips to her ear with a low, hoarse whisper.

"You're not my mother..."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

With an unexpected furious cry and bitter underlying hiss, she crawled away from his body; revealing her morphed gaze to him upon her retreat. "You!" She screeched angrily, removing his dagger from beneath her breast. His gaze narrowed on her triumphantly as she crawled in reverse up the vertical rise of the wall behind them. "You would kill your own mother?!" His brows furrowed darkly, his lips quirking into a reflexive grin as she threw his weapon to the floor at her feet.

"Don't accuse me of being equally as naive as you are..." He rumbled lowly in demand with a soft scoff, his expression darkening venomously. "There is nothing purer than the relationship between a mother and her child... My mother would never desecrate such a sacred bond." His abrasive snarl was interrupted shrilly and he winced with the entertained wails of the woman backed up against the wall; bracing herself with her hands as if they were adhered to the wall themselves in support.

"But you would!" She accused him bluntly, her finger pointing to him in accusation. Hiten shrugged and cocked an eyebrow in acknowledgement, diverting his gaze negligently to the floorboards.

"I certainly wouldn't deny such an opportunity if it presented itself; _obviously_." He cut his gaze back to the creature, who was fading into shadow in attempts to become one with the serpent that had previously observed them beyond his perception. He swallowed dryly as the creatures bulbous gaze struck him chillingly, staring him with eyes as soulless as his own. He prepared his demands in his head under the assumption that their conversing had come to an end with the vanishing of the wounded woman; he didn't expect the serpent's lips to part in speech.

"Save your conceit, son of Ryura. The damage has been done." The snakes thundering echo boomed in the confines of the room beneath the rhythmic pattering of heavy rain. Hiten's expression flashed with fury as he mentally calculated the options he had for defense against the beast; his blood boiling with the mention of his father's name in his presence. "I carry your seed within my body. Your lust has blinded you to the truth!"

"Is this the part where you divulge in your evil plot before we fight to the death?" He mused sarcastically. "Because I _am_ somewhat curious as to how that fact is relevant to the situation."

"Wrong! This is the part where I destroy you!" Hiten flinched as the serpent leapt from the wall, powering towards him in physical form. Unlike their previous encounter, the snake didn't pass through him like a shadow; its tail, instead, crashed into his chest and sent him back against his own bedroom wall. His head snapped back against the wall with a hollow crack; his teeth grinding with the pain of the impact on an all-too-literal level. He tried to steady his feet beneath him and shake off his bewilderment with a haggard cough; immediately widening his gaze in observance of the gouge the snake's tail had taken out of his chest. He snapped back into reality as the serpent's mighty jaws approached him, quickly dropping to the floor and pushing off the wall behind him to propel himself out of harm's way. He cut his gaze sharply back to the beast as it prepared to crash through the wall, but as it approached the timber, it only slithered back into the two dimensional plain on the wall's surface. His brows furrowed in disdain as the snake's head grew dimensional once more, emerging from the weathered boards of the wall to glare at him viciously.

"You were only a shadow the night before!" He roared bitterly, quickly regaining his unstable footing as he lost patience with his situation. He flinched with the low, maniacal echo of the serpent's laughter as it resonated through the room; his blood falling silently among the floorboards to remind him that he was losing faith in his encounter being of his imagination only.

"Fool... you've given birth to the darkness of your heart." Hiten ground his teeth with a low growl, narrowing his gaze on the beast expectantly. "You have succumbed to your weakness and have become the shadow of your father's taint!"

"Like fuck I have!" He snapped viciously, his patience wearing dangerously thin. "I am nothing like that wretched excuse for a man!" He snarled, flexing his hand at his side in anticipation; yearning for the comforting presence of his weapon in such a moment. "I fail to see how knowingly bedding a fictitious wench has condemned me to walk the path of a war mongering murderer!"

"Be it not so?" The serpent mocked in response to his spontaneous denial. "You have drawn your mother's blood as coldly as he has... _You_ have let your ambitions bind you! Your efforts to destroy him have aided in his revival!"

"Liar!" Hiten roared in defiance, lunging for his mother's dagger. With an intimidating hiss the snake lunged for him once more; narrowly scathing Hiten's shoulder as he dropped to the floor and slid along the floorboards until his weapon was held tightly in his palm once again. He cut his gaze sharply back to the serpent as it continued to circle the room, fading in and out of the wall's plain. "All I've ever done was better myself in preparation for the inevitable battle between father and son!" He ground his teeth resentfully with the low, rumbling laughter of the snake.

"And the kingdom you razed to the ground less than a fortnight ago?" The sarcasm of the creature turned his stomach in agony. "What is your excuse for ending that family's reign?"

"My reason's are... of my own..." He growled lowly, bracing his fingers on the floor to steady himself as he remained low in stance.

"I am your own!" The snake roared in posturing. "You walk in your father's bloody footsteps but cannot accept that he is a part of you! I am the spawn of your denial... With the wound you inflicted on your mother's shadow you have sealed your fate!"

"Are you telling me that because I played along with your little game, you're condemning me?!" Hiten snapped, straightening in ready for the attack he knew was growing nearer. "You're a fool to believe that I would fall so easily!"

"You are the fool..." The snake assured him dully. "You condemned yourself long ago... You have given birth to your own demise; the darkness festering inside your soul and fighting for possession of your ambitions." The serpent's gaze cut around the walls of the room; its pupil movement erratic and eerily displayed on eyes accompanied by no eyelids. "Soon... I will be free to bring down these walls around you; burying you among the ashes as you should have been decades ago with your miserable excuse for a mother!" With a sharp inhale, Hiten tightened his grip on his weapon and kept a sharp eye on the emergence of the creature's body. Whatever he had done to trigger the development of the snake's physical figure was obviously delayed; forcing it to linger between forms as it delayed their battle in hopes of stalling for the time it needed to become whole.

He narrowed his gaze in determination and felt the comforting weight of his mother's final gift to him in his palm; the dagger that had saved his life more times than one. "I don't care if I am guilty for giving you the life you sought..." He rumbled lowly under his breath. "I don't care if you do exist. I don't care that you do insult my ambitions." He barred his teeth furiously, his brows furrowing with the emergence of his livid scowl. "But the insult of my mother is something that I am _not_ capable of overlooking!" He lunged towards the creature, his heart slamming against the walls of his chest as it raced with crippling uncertainty. His blood already streaked the floor from the deep wound in his chest; a wound that would normally render him effectively hindered. Adrenaline burned through his veins and strengthened his aspiration, beyond the wounds his body suffered. He felt increasingly grateful for his breeds incredible reflexes as he narrowly escaped fatal blows from his overwhelmingly large opponent; narrowly avoiding venomous injection multiple times as the serpents jaws crashed hollowly together on the empty air he had occupied moments before.

He didn't dwell too much on the thoughts of repercussion to his actions as he leapt up onto the serpent's back and thrust the blade of his dagger up beneath the scales of the snake's slimy flesh for another attempt at slaying the creature. With not but a frustrated hiss, the creature continued to advance; relatively unscathed by his desperate attempt at crippling the beast. His eyes widened with his startled gasp as he watched the wall of his room approaching his body as the snake vanished into the flat surface like a shadow once more. He grunted with the impact of the wall, toppling off of the scaly flesh he perched on and falling to the floor with a loud crash. He howled with pain as the dagger he'd buried in the snake's flesh moments before was loosened with the creature's body fading into shadow; dropping against the wall and sinking deeply into his bare shoulder. He winced and ground his teeth, his breath heavy with his body's exhaustion as he struggled to sit up and tear the dagger from his flesh with trembling fingers. He watched the blade leak his own blood onto his lap, his heart heavy with regret. 'Mother...' No matter how many holes he poked in the snakes scaly hide, he couldn't wound it deep enough to collapse it and end its assault. For a long moment, he sat and listened to the rain driving against the walls of the castle like his tears watering the earth the day she had fallen before him.

"You brought this on yourself, boy..." The snake rumbled darkly, its head slowly emerging from the wall across from him once more. "You submitted to your unspoken fantasies and sealed your own fate."

"What you speak of is impossible to deny..." He murmured hoarsely, his heavy breath drowning his groans of pain as he slowly straightened against the wall. "My mother has been dead for years... Seeing her once again, holding onto her memory like I had the opportunity to this night, is worth dying for in repercussion..."

"You would die to bed your own mother?" The snake hissed in disgust, its tail curling its way around Hiten's weakened body.

"No... I discovered long before then that the woman coming to me was not of my blood; but rather a fictitious creation of my mind to sate a child's fantasy..." He groaned with the sharp bite of pain in his body as he slowly staggered to his feet. "The ideal I speak of is the thirst for years lost to the ash of the fire surrounding this castle; this kingdom." His expression softened as he glared back at the curious snake, its dilating pupils focused on his wounded body as he rose with his mother's dagger clutched tight in his palm. "Even if it was a deception the indulgence was sweet, and for a solitary moment; I tasted the kind of affection I have been robbed of for the better part of my life..." He grunted softly as he stumbled a single step forwards; his arm straining to keep his grip on his dagger steady. "The physical affections I share with my mother in my dreams are only skin deep... The feelings I share with her much deeper... and-" He whined through barred teeth and resisted the need to clutch his wounded arm. "And beyond... your comprehension."

"But in such danger, all you do is struggle to pierce my armored flesh with such a meek weapon when you know that down the hall, the weapon of your father hangs upon your wall." The snake reasoned somewhat more diplomatically, despite Hiten shaking his head in denial.

"My mother fought to her death to protect me with nothing but this _meek _weapon... Even if I should suffer the same fate as she did; I would choose her weapon over my father's any day." He straightened and let his expression darken determinedly. "I swore on my father's blade that I'd use it to take his life... Since he's been slain by another, that promise has become hollow..."

"You would die for no other justifiable reason than to defend your mother's honor?" The snake inquired sternly, its pupils narrowing to thin slits once more. Hiten lowered his gaze to the dagger in his hand still hot with his own blood as it flowed over his hand. A life without his mother was empty and not worth the effort of preserving... He cut his gaze back to the serpent, glaring back at him from beneath sweat dampened bangs.

"Yes..." The snake eyed him suspiciously, carefully observing his unwavering beaten body. Light trails of his blood rolled over his abdomen from the gash in his chest. His shoulder quivered with the muscles reaction to being severed by his mother's blade; yet not only was he still standing, he was standing and ready to sacrifice his life to honor his mother's memory. "The phantom you offered me was correct in one way; I did inherit my mother's passion... and my father's... strength..." He lowered his gaze dismally to the mess his room had become; streaked with both creature's blood and disaster "Even if my passions seem darker than those of my mother, it in no way voids my defense in rejecting my father's blood." He returned his gaze softly to the serpent's with a crooked smile. "Unfortunately for you, what little I did inherit from my wretch of a father keeps me standing before you ready to spill your blood until I fall lifelessly to the floor."

"So; you admit your father's presence inside you?" The creature concluded humbly, its pupils dilating softly once more.

"Reluctantly..." He rumbled smoothly. "What I fail to accept is that I will become his shadow when everything inside me desires nothing more than to resurrect him in body only to lay him to ruins at my feet once more..." He admitted to himself more than anyone. There were times when he found himself reluctantly thankful for his father's blood; his strengths. If he had of been born by another, he may have fallen into extinction with the rest of his kind. Instead, he thrived; and although he would continuously hesitate to admit it, his father's strengths and teachings were to thank for his survival.

Hiten flinched as the snake lurched forwards off the wall, overwhelmed with the previously slow-moving creatures advance as it's body narrowed thinly into an obscurely black dart. Unable to comprehend a suitable reaction, he threw his arm in front of his face; his mother's dagger tight in his palm as the blade rested along his wrist while he waited for the snake to vanish like it had in visions previously. He winced with a low, pained groan as the creature actually collided with his body; the shadow seeping into the flesh of his bloodied arm. "Embrace it..." He recoiled in pain, barely restraining his need to scratch at his ears for the shrill echo of the snake's hiss seeping into his senses unbearably. He quickly lowered his arm from in front of his face, scouring the room for the snake's presence, when his attention fell on his bare arm; his veins blackening beneath his skin with the serpent's taint. He instinctively dropped his dagger, his brow twitching in alarm as he flexed his hand in hopes that it still had feeling.

"I swear on my life I'll never drink again..." He declared lowly, shaking his arm as if it would stop the spreading of the shadowed presence. He winced once more and dropped to his knees, clutching his hand to his chest. "Damn it! If I had known fucking a woman taking the form of my mother would condemn me to hell I-" His statement was interrupted from between harsh breaths and he dropped his free hand to the floor in support of his fading body strength. "No... I still would have done it." He admitted faintly. He closed his eyes and recoiled in on himself, his gaze falling on his mother's dagger long enough for him to consider joining her; more or less to sate his curiosity by learning what color he would bleed in such a moment. When he reached out to lay his fingers weakly on the golden hilt, the black started to fade from under his paling skin and his discolored fingers started to return to their normally roughly tanned exterior. With a heavy sigh of relief the moment the striking pain in his chest had bled through his system; he picked up his weapon once more and sat back on his knees observing the elegant design in longing.

"No more fucked up dreams..." He whispered hoarsely. "I'm so done with this sh-" His breath caught weakly and forced a haggard cough from inside his chest. The dagger fell back to the floor with a silent ringing; his senses numbing with the pool of his blood gathering around his knees. "Sh-shit..." He blinked back his blurring vision and held his trembling hand before him; his hand bloodied with the natural crimson colouring. If he was still dreaming, what was it going to take to wake him?

He shifted softly, his vision dimming as if it would fade entirely and his world would become black. "If this really isn't a dream then take me..." He murmured softly. "I'm ready to be with you..." He wasn't sure if he was dismayed or ecstatic when he saw the soft, well maintained fingertips of his mother coming to rest around her old dagger. He shifted his gaze out from under his bangs; his expression solemn and confused. At first, he wanted to snatch his dagger back and shove it through his own chest to keep events from repeating themselves but when she reached out to let one hand rest gently on his wounded cheek; he knew that he was safe. In the moment she smiled back at him and softly shook her head in denial of his request; he felt incompetent for ever mistaking the false mistress for his precious mother.

Her touch was even softer than he remembered, her eyes even brighter; her smile more radiant. He wasn't sure whether or not he was rendered speechless by her magnificence, or suffering from the shock of his injuries; but something kept him still beneath her as she started to dress his wounds. His pain had started to fade, but he was sure that his weakening conscience was to blame for his numbing senses. When she had finished wrapping his chest and shoulder in bandages, she gently laid her delicate hand over his heart. Despite his disorientation, his heart raced in delight with the soft gasp meeting her lips as he forced his body to respond; taking his now bandaged hand and using it to hold hers against him. His lips parted to speak, but he had passed the point of exhaustion, forcing what remained of his actions to come through in response to the adrenaline powering through him. He took her hand in his and gently guided it to his lips to place a gentle kiss on her folded fingertips; closing his eyes to revel in the inescapable comfort her presence enveloped him in. Upon removing her fingers from against his lips slowly, he guided her hand to rest alongside his cheek; every nerve in his body awakening in the realization that the specter had done a horrible job in pretending to be the woman he loved most in the world. He slowly opened his teary crimson gaze and swallowed dryly, the sting of his tears burning into the wounds on his face as they fell; regardless of how strongly he fought their presence.

"Take me with you..." He whispered hoarsely, his grip on her hand tightening. "Please don't leave me here..." He begged softly, clinging to what little peace he'd found against her. His heart sank when she rested her other hand on his cheek, brushing her thumbs slowly against his bruised flesh in comfort. "Mother..." Her tears rolled steadily over her face but she didn't once shudder or whimper with her pain. With a beautiful smile, she restrained her need to suffer and slowly shook her head in a second denial of his request; as she had always done when he was a child. He slipped his tongue restlessly over his lower lip, his restraint wearing thin with the need to grow closer to her. His breath became heavy as his lips parted in wait, watching her gentle expression as it grew nearer; if he was still dreaming... what would one taste hurt?_ *"There_ _is nothing purer than the relationship between a mother and her child... My mother would never desecrate such a sacred bond."*_ His breathing caught as she advanced, drawing his face nearer with her embrace on his cheeks; stroking his long hair back over his ears as he drew obediently nearer. His heart sank in discouraging relief as she tipped his head forwards and placed a slow, gentle kiss on his forehead. Why did her love hurt him so badly as her warmth started to fade? "No..." He whispered softly. "Mother, please don't-" She raised a single finger to his lips and smiled warmly back at him as she started to fade from his darkening sight.

"Be strong... my son..." He shook his head softly in rejection as she laid her dagger back in his lap; her hand guiding his to wrap around the hilt. She held his weakening grip gently around the dagger's handle in encouragement; her touch fading from his comprehension as his body weakened further with his exhaustion. His eyelids fell heavy over his devastated crimson gaze and after an extended blink; her breathtaking smile had vanished into his memories once more. He shuddered weakly and shook his tears free; falling on his free palm for support. 'Don't let go...' Her whisper was soft as it embraced his senses a final time upon parting. He fell to his side weakly with a pained grunt; his eyelids sealed and resolve shaken as he clung to the ornate handle of what was left of his mother.

"Don't leave me..." He begged weakly, his chest trembling with the strength of his tears as they forced their way through his restraint. "Mother..." It wasn't long after she had left him with her gentle assurance that he had lost his battle with exhaustion; his pain finally fading with the comfort of her warm memories as his mind cleared... and his world darkened.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

It was still raining when dawn broke and his tired feet carried his wounded body outside of the castle to the gardens sprouting wildly in the courtyard. When he woke, his room looked none the wiser to the conflict between himself and the dark serpent the night before; and despite the ache in his body from mental exhaustion, his flesh remained unscathed by battle… un-bandaged by his mother. "It was real…" He whispered softly to the gentle pattering of raindrops around his mother's grave. He watched the rain leak into the earth from behind damp bangs as he spoke to the memory buried at his feet. "You saved me from myself… didn't you?" The wind whistled quietly by him as he loomed over the unmarked grave of his most cherished friend; thunder rolling distantly in a soothing approach. He rolled the shoulder that had previously been wounded by her dagger the night before; letting his fingers brush lightly over the hilt of his most precious weapon. "You were real…" He repeated softly. His expression softened weakly as a subtle, genuine smile found his lips.

Manten slowly approached his friend as he hovered over the one place on the earth that he wished to remain undisturbed. He had found out about the land's secret the hard way early on when he had come to Hiten in their youth mere days after reclaiming Hiten's home. He knew that beneath the soft, flowery soil in the castle's garden, a young Hiten had laid his mother to rest. On any other occasion, Manten would have avoided him entirely when he was at such peace in the company of his own thoughts; but with such a discovery lingering at the tip of his tongue he decided to press boldly forwards. He had spent his entire trip playing out the conversation in his head; following every thread that such an exchange could branch off on. His palm folded in on a small fragment as he took his brother's side.

Hiten was well aware of Manten's approach, but for the first time in a long while, he wasn't so easily disturbed by it. "Manten…" He rumbled softly in greeting, keeping his lowered gaze on the delphiniums that still managed to sprout along the garden walls even with the courtyard scarred by the presence of fire.

"Uw- Yes, dear brother?" Manten replied equally as quietly in respect of the resting lady of their lands.

"Do you remember my mother?" He inquired solemnly; his gaze falling back to his mother's grave as he brushed his long braid back over his shoulder.

"O-of course I did…" Manten assured him clumsily, his amphibian-like features flushing warmly with his thoughts. "I may have been young, but one doesn't easily relinquish memories of m'lady and her beauty…" Hiten's brows furrowed in disdain.

"Do you…" He started slowly, swallowing dryly with the hoarse rasp plaguing his tone despite the serenity he'd finally found. How long had he remained silent in her presence? "Did you ever know her name, Manten?" His gaze remained bound to the soft mounds of earth at his feet, his chest burning with the pain of his longing as the question barely met his lips.

"I- Of course, brother Hiten…" He assured him uncertainly, his gaze wandering to his feet bashfully. "Everyone knew of m'lady and her kindness…" Hiten blinked back the well of emotion building inside him and turned to face his timid friend as he stood a few feet away from him.

"Speak it…" He encouraged desperately, trying to mask his normally rough demeanor with respect for the subject at hand. Manten's expression faltered uncertainly, but seeing the pain welling behind Hiten's unusually soft crimson eyes had him obeying without question.

"I-it'was Lady Kiyomi… dear brother…" Hiten's heart skipped a beat and started to race in his chest as he turned to adjust his gaze to his mother's grave once more.

"Kiyomi…" He whispered breathlessly, his chest aching with the pain of his longing to know her name finally rested. "My lady… my queen…" He let his eyes drift shut, her name repeating in his mind as naturally as her touch had felt against his face. He tipped his head back and for once didn't curse the rain as it rolled over the lines of his face, washing away his pain. "My mother…"

Manten shuffled sheepishly next to Hiten, trying his hardest to find his courage to interrupt his brother despite his unusually peaceful demeanor. "I… brother…?" He started slowly, trying his hardest to remain in place as he watched a small amount of tension return to Hiten's body with his adjustment. Hiten slowly turned to face him, and despite his calm approach, Manten still had to remind himself that his news was of the utmost importance; requiring him to keep from retreating.

"What is it…?" Hiten asked lowly, the intimidating rasp returning to his voice. Manten's hand started to tremble as he held it stiffly in offering to his beloved brother.

"I-well I thought… Perhaps this relic may interest you." He was freezing up and all of his rehearsing was lost as he unfolded his fingers; revealing the small violet-colored shard in his palm to Hiten's curious gaze. Hiten shifted his gaze back to Manten's before speaking softly.

"And what gave you such an inclination…?" Hiten inquired curiously, cocking a single eyebrow expectantly.

"Er-well I… You see I was… I did some research during my travels a-and came across this mysterious shard." He didn't have the heart to tell Hiten that he had observed him in his weakness and had went searching for a way to ease his heartache. "And you see… dear brother… I discovered that this is a fragment of a sacred jewel known as the Skikon no Tama."

For whatever reason, Hiten's ears rang with the presence of Manten's final words. His intrigue greater than it had been before, he reached out and took the small jewel into his own hand; whispers in his mother's voice echoing deep within the hollowed walls of his mind. "And why… should this jewel catch my interest…?" He asked slowly, unable to comprehend his reaction to its presence.

"W-well you see…" Manten started nervously, tapping his forefingers together restlessly. "I have discovered that this shard is one of many recently scattered throughout this land…" Hiten's brows furrowed in confusion as he cut his gaze from the violet jewel to Manten's wandering expression.

"So it is one of many… That lessens its value significa-"

"Ny-ot… exactly…" Manten squeaked shrilly in interruption. Hiten's gaze narrowed on him suspiciously, silently encouraging him to continue. "What I have discovered… is that when these shards are gathered, there is a possibility of this jewel becoming whole once more…"

"You are losing my interest, Manten." He admitted harshly, the peace he had found fading from his being. "What purpose would I have for a jewel; whole or not?" Manten paused and softened his gaze humbly around the gardens. Was it wise to divulge such information to his brother? He had always wanted a handsome appearance like that of Hiten's… but was it worth denying him the information in order to obtain? "Speak Manten…" Hiten demanded sternly.

"I…" He exhaled heavily and dropped his fidgeting hands to his sides. He couldn't watch his dear friend suffer any longer… "When the jewel was in its completed form… it had the ability to grant the holder's… greatest wish…" He admitted softly, his gaze finally rising to meet his brother's. He watched a look of bewilderment and disbelief cross Hiten's features, his eyes widening with his parting lips.

"H-how… do you know if it has retained such an ability… since it has been broken…?" Hiten asked breathlessly, pain welling in his chest with such a hopeful discovery. Manten shrugged softly and diverted his gaze.

"I don't, brother…" He admitted sheepishly. "But I have become aware over a time that m'lady's presence is greatly missed…" Hiten swallowed hard and closed his fingers around the shard of the jewel.

"It has such a power?" He breathed out softly, his expression wavering in incomprehension.

"I believe it to be so…" Manten assured him softly.

"You could have kept this knowledge to yourself, Manten…" He murmured hoarsely. "But instead you have gifted it to me…" He cut his gaze back to Manten's suspiciously. "Why?" Manten smiled meekly up at him, hoping that he had found a way to ease Hiten's pain with higher hopes of success.

"This castle needs a queen… brother Hiten…" He teased softly in hopes of lightening his brother's skeptical mood. He sighed and diverted his flushed gaze with the realisation of the truth. "M'lady named me in your honor and watched over my family… You took me as your brother despite me being of impure blood…" He started, as gently as a half-reptilian demon could. "I can't bear the thought of you suffering any longer…" He admitted with his failed restraint. "If there is a way I can help to bring m'lady back to you… I won't rest until the debt of your kindness is repaid…"

"Manten…" He murmured softly, his heart sinking with the devotion of his adopted brother. He tightened his fingers around the shard and closed his eyes, trying to process the impact of the knowledge entering his consideration. "Thank you…" He murmured softly, trying to contain the swell of appreciation rising inside him. "Would you leave me with her…?" He managed hoarsely, his longing overpowering his resolve despite his friend's presence. Manten nodded with a soft smile and bowed his head respectfully.

"Of course, brother Hiten…" He whispered happily upon his hastened retreat. With Manten on his way back to the castle, Hiten collapsed to his knees at the foot of his mother's grave; tears stinging his tired eyes._ *__"__When the jewel was in its completed form… It had the ability to grant the holder's… greatest wish…"*_

"My greatest wish…" He muttered softly from behind his solemn, yet delightedly anxious smile. He held the embraced shard tight to his chest, his fist trembling with the power of his grip around the tiny fragment. "Mother… I will travel to whatever lands should beckon me to gather each shard of this mysterious jewel…" He vowed silently, his body trembling with the force of his determination. "And when I do… we will be reunited at last…" He whispered softly in conclusion. _*His breathing caught as she advanced, drawing his face nearer with her embrace on his cheeks; stroking his long hair back over his ears as he drew obediently nearer. His heart sank in discouraging relief as she tipped his head forwards and placed a slow, gentle kiss on his forehead beneath his bangs; a gentle violet glow emitting from his skin beneath her lips as she slowly retreated.*_


End file.
